A memoir on Ireland native and Saxon

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THIS BOOK

IS

HUMBLY 1 N S C K I B F. l«

TO

HER MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTT

THE QUEEN

OF GREAT BRITAIN AND

IRELAND.

2013

PEEFACE.

I HUMBLY inscribe the following Memoir to lier
most gracious Majesty the Queen ; not in the shape
of a dedication, or with the presumptuous hope of
my being able to produce any work of sufficient
interest to occupy the Royal mind. Yet, there is
nothing more desirable than that the Sovereign of
these realms should understand the real nature of
Irish history ; should be aware of how much the
Irish have suffered from English misrule ; should
comprehend the secret springs of Irish discontent ;
should be acquainted with the eminent virtues
which the Irish nation have exhibited in every
phase of their singular fate ; and, above all, should
be intimately acquainted with the confiscations, the
plunder, the robbery, the domestic treachery, the
violation of all public faith and of the sanctity of
treaties, the ordinary wholesale slaughters, the
planned murders, the concerted massacres, which
have been inflicted upon the Irish people by the
English Govermnents.

It has pleased the English people in general to
forget all the facts in Irish history. They have
been also graciously pleased to forgive themselves
all those crimes ! And the Irish people would for-
give them likewise, if it were not that much of the
worst spirit of the worst days still survive^. The

6 PEEFACE.

system of clearance of tenants at the present day,
belongs to, and is a demonstration of, that hatred
of the Irish people which animated the advice of
Spenser and the conduct of Cromwell.

It is quite true that at the present day judges
are not bribed with " four shillings in the jpound,^^ to
be paid out of the property in dispute ; but, may
not prejudice and bigotry produce unjust judgments,
as well as pecuniary corruption ? And are those
persons free from reproach or from guilt, who are
ready to select, for the bench of justice, men whose
sole distinguishing characteristic has been the ex-
hibition of their animosity to the religion and to
the people of Ireland 1

Did Stanley show none of the temper of Ireton
in his Coercion Bill % Is none of the spirit of Coote
or of Parsons to be found (in a mitigated form) in
those who refuse to the Catholic people of Ireland
their just share of elective or municipal franchises ;
and who insist that the Irish shall remain an infe-
rior and a degraded caste, deprived of that perfect
equality of civil and religious liberty, of franchises
and privileges— which equality could alone consti-
tute a union, or render a union tolerable ?

I wish to arouse the attention of the Sovereign
and of the honest portion of the English people to
the wrongs which Ireland has suffered and whiish
Ireland is suffering from British misrule. The
Irish people are determined to preserve their alle-
giance to the Throne unbroken and intact ; but
they are equally determined to obtain justice for
themselves ; to insist on the restoration of their
native Parliament, and to persevere in that demand
without violating the law ; but also "svithout remit-

PREFACE. 7

ting or relaxing their exertions, until the object is
aciiieved and success attained.

^Vhat the Sovereign and the Statesmen of Eng-
land should understand is, that the Irish people feel
and know that there cannot happen a more heavy
misfortune to Ireland than the prosperity and jDower
of Gieat Britain. When Britain is powerful, the
anti-Irish faction in this country are encouraged,
fosteied, promoted ; Irish rights are derided ; the
giievinces of Ireland are scoffed at ; we are
compslled to receive stinted franchises, or none ;
limited privileges, or none ! — to submit to a
political inferiority, rendered doubly afflictive
by the contrast with the advantages enjoyed by
the people of England and the people of Scotland.
The Tory landlord class — exterminators and all —
prin.e favourites at the Castle, are countenanced
and sustained as the nucleus of that anti-Irish
faction which would once again transplant the
Catholics of Ireland to the remotest regions, if that
faction had the power to do so ; and which actually
drives those Catholics to transport themselves in
multitudes to every country out of Ireland.

The worst result of British prosperity is, the
protection it gives to the hard-hearted and bigoted
class among the Irish landlords.

It is also of the utmost importance that the
Sovereign and Statesmen of England should be
apprised that the people of Ireland know and feel
that they have a deep and vital interest in the
weakness and adversity of England. It was not
for themselves alone that the Americans gained the
victory over Burgoyne at Saratoga. They conquered
for Irish as well as for American freedom. Nor

« rHEFACE.

was it for France alone that Dnmourier defeat(/d
the Austrian army at Gemappe. The Catholics/of
Ireland participated in the fruits of that victory,

At the present day, it would be vain to attempt
to conceal the satisfaction the people of Ireland feel
at the fiscal embarrassments of England. They
bitterly and cordially regret the sufferings and
privations of the English and Scotch artisans and
operatives ; but they do not regret the weahiess
of the English Government, which results from
fading commerce and failing manufacture. For the
woes of each suffering individual they have varm
compassion and lively sympathy. From the con-
sequent weakness of the Government party, tiey
derive no other feelings than those of satisfaction
and of hope.

Was ever folly — was ever fatuity so great, is is
evinced in the system of governing such a country
as Ireland in such a manner as to create and contiiue
the sentiments and opinions which I have expressed,
and feebly endeavoured to describe 1

Her Majesty's most faithful,
most dutiful, and

most devoted Subject,

DANIEL O'CONNELT.

1*^ Ftbruary, 1843.

AN HISTORICAL MEMOIU

ON

IRELAND AXD THE IRISH

CHAPTEll I.

Yea lis 1172— IGl 2.

1. The English dominion in Ireland commenced
in the year 1172. It was for some centuries ex-
tended over only an inconsiderable portion of the
island. From various causes the English district or
Pale sometimes augmented in size, sometimes dimi-
nished. ]t did not become generally diffused over
Ireland until the last years of Queen Elizabeth, nor
universally so, until shortly after the accession of
King James the First. The success of the forces of
Queen Elizabeth was achieved by means the most
horrible: treachery, murder, wholesale massacre, and
deliberately-created famine. Take the last instance.
The growing crops were year after year destroyed,
until the fairest part of Ireland, and in particular the
province of !Munster, was literally depopulated. I
give here one quotation. It is from the English
Protestant historian, Morrison : — "j^o spectacle was
more frequent in the ditches of the towns, and
especially in wasted countries, than to see multitudes
of these poor people, the Irish, dead, with their
mouths all coloured green by eating nettles, docks,
and all things they could rend above ground."

Mark ! Illustrious Lady— oh ! mark ! The most

10 1172—1612. [chap. I.

frequent spectacle was, multitudes of dead — of Irish
dead — dead of hunger ! — Lady, after having endea-
voured to sustain life by devouring, after the fashion
of the beasts of the field, the wild-growing herbs.
They were dead in multitudes, and none to bury
them ! This was the consummation of the subjuga-
tion of the Irish, after a contest of four hundred
years.

Never was a people on the face of the globe so
cruelly treated as the Irish.

2. The Irish people were not received into alle-
giance or to the benefit of being recognized as subjects
until the year 1612, only 228 years ago, when the
Statute 11 James I. cap. 5, was enacted. That
statute abolished all dist' ictions of race between
English and Irish, " with the intent that," as the
statute expresses it, " they may grow into one nation,
whereby there may be an utter oblivion and extin-
guishment of all former differences and discorde
betwixt them.''

3. During the four hundred and forty years that
intervened between the commencement or the English
dominion in 1172, and its completion in 1612, the
Irish people were known only as the "Irish Enemies."
They were denominated " Irish Enemies " in all the
Royal Proclamations, Royal Charters, and Acts of
Parliament, during that period. It was their legal
and technical description.

4. During that period the English were pro-
hibited from intermarrying with the Irish, from
having their children nursed by the wives of Irish
Captains, Chiefs, or Lords ; and what is still more
strange, the English were also prohibited from
sending goods, wares, or merchandizes for sale, or
selling them upon credit or for ready money to the
Irish.

5. During that time any person of English de-
scent might murder a mere Irish man or woman with
perfect impunity. Such murder was no more a crime

CHAP, il] 1612—1625. 11

in the eye of the law, than the killing of a rabid or
ferocious animal.

6. There was indeed this distinction, that if a
native Irishman had made legal submission, and had
been received into English allegiance, he _ could no
longer be murdered with impunity, for his murder
was punishable by a small pecuniary fine : a punish-
ment, not for the moral crime of murdering a man, but
for the social injury of depriving the State of a
servant. Just as, at no remote period, the white man
in several of our West Indian Colonies was liable to
pay a fine for killing a negro, only because an owner
was thereby deprived of a slave.

CHAPTER II.

Years 1612—1625.
" Residue of the reign of King James the First."

1. I HAVE traced the first period of Anglo-Irish
History by a few of its distinctive characteristics.
It comprised a period of 440 years of internal war,
rapine, and massacre. The second period consists
only of thirteen years, but possesses an interest of a
different and a deeper character.

2. Unhappily there had grown up during the
first period another, and, alas ! a more inveterate
source of " differences and discorde " between the
people. I mean the Protestant Reformation. I am
not now to give any opinion on the religious grounds
of that all-important measure. I do not treat of it as
a theologian. I speak of it merely liistorically, as a
fact having results of a most influential nature.

3. The native Irish universally, and the natives
of English descent generally, rejected the Reforma-
tion. It was embraced but by comparatively few ;
and thus the sources of "differences and discorde"
were perpetuated. The distinction of race was lost.
Irish and English were amalgamated for the purpose

12 , 1625— 1 660. [(.HAP. III.

of enduring spoil and oppression under the name of
Catholics. The party which the English Govern-
ment supported was composed of persons lately
arrived in Ireland, men who, of course, took the name
of " Protestants."

4. The intent of the statute of 1612 was thus
frustrated. The "discorde" between the Protestant
and Catholic parties, prevented the Irish from "grow-
ing into one nation," and still prevents them from
being " one nation." The fault, however, has been
and still is with the Government. Is it not time it
were totally corrected ?

5. The reign of James the First was distinguished
by crimes committed on the Irish people under the
pretext of Protestantism. The entire of the province
of Ulster was unjustly confiscated — the natives were
executed on the scaffold or slaughtered with the
sword — a miserable remnant were driven to the
fastnesses of remote mountains, or the wilds of almost
inaccessible bogs. Their places v>^ere filled with
Scotch adventurers, " aliens in blood and in religion."
Devastation equal to that committed by King James
i n Ulster, was never before seen in Christendom, save
in Ireland. In the Christian world there never was a
people so cruelly treated as the Irish.

6. The jurisdiction of Parliament being now
extended all over Ireland, King James created in one
day forty close boroughs, giving the right to elect two
members of Parliament in each of these boroughs to
thirteen Protestants, and this in order to deprive his
Catholic subjects of their natural and just share of
representation.

CHAPTER III.

Yeaes 1625—1660.
1, The reign of Charles the First began under
different auspices. The form of oppression and
rolDbery varied— the substance was still the same.

CHAP. III.] 1625—1660. , 13

Iniquitous law took place of the bloody sword ; the
soldier vras superseded by the judge ; and for the
names of booty and plunder, the words forfeiture and
confiscation were substituted. The instrument used
by the Government was the " Commission to inquire
into Defective Titles." The King claimed the estates
of the Irish people in three provinces. This com-
!iii.=;sion was instituted to enforce that claim. It was
a monstrous tribunal. An attempt was made to bribe
juries to find for the Crown — that attempt failed.
Then the jurors vvho hesitated to give verdicts
against the people, were fined, imprisoned, ruined.
The judges were not so chary — they were bribed —
aye, bribed, with four shillings in the pound of the
value of all lands recovered from the subjects by the
Crown before such judges. And so totally lost to all
sense of justice or of shame was the perpetrator of
this bribery, Strafibrd, that he actually boasted,
that he had thus made the Chief Baron a'nd othei
judges "attend to the affair as if it were their own
private business."

2. By these unjust and wicked means, the mi-
nisters of Charles the First despoiled, for the use of
the Crown, the Irish Catholic people of upwards of
one million of arable acres, besides a considerably
greater extent of land taken from the right owners,
and granted to the rai)acious individuals by whom
the spoliation was effected.

3. The civil war ensued. Forgetting all the
crimes committed against them, the Irish Catholics
adhered with desperate tenacity to the party of the
King. The Irish Protestants, some sooner and others
later, joined the usurping powers.

4. During that civil war, the massacres committed
on the Irish by St. Leger, Monroe, Tichbourne, Hamil-
ton, Grenville, Ireton, and Cromwell, were as savage
and as brutal as the horrible feats of Attila or Ghengis
Khan.

5. In particular, the history of the world presents

14 1660—1692. [chap. iv.

nothing more shocking and detestable than_ the
massacres perpetrated by O'Brien, Lord Inchiquin, in
the Cathedral of Cashel ; by Ireton at Limerick ; and
by Cromwell in Drogheda and Wexford.

6. When the war had ceased, Cromwell collected,
as the first-fruits of peace, eighty thousand Irish in
the southern parts of Ireland, to transplant them to
the West India Islands. As many as survived the
process of collection, were embarked in transports for
these islands. Of the eighty thousand, in six years,
the survivors did not amount to twenty individuals ! !_ !
Eighty thousand Irish at one blow deliberately sacri-
ficed, by a slow but steady cruelty, to the Moloch of
English domination ! ! ! Eighty thousand— O God
of mercy !

7. Yet all these barbarities ought to be deemed
light and trivial, compared with the crowning cruelty
of the enemies of Ireland. The Irish were refused
civil j ustice. They were still more atrociously refused
historical justice, and accused _ of being the authors
and perpetrators of assassinations and massacres, of
which they were only the victims.

8. No people on the face of the earth were ever
treated with such cruelty as the Irish.

CHAPTER lY.
Years 1G60— 1692.

1. We are arrived at the Restoration— an event
of the utmost utility to the English and Scotch royal-
ists, who were justly restored to their properties —
an event which consigned, irrevocably and for ever,
to British plunderers, and especially to the soldiers of
Ireton and Cromwell, the properties of the Irish
Catholic people, whose fathers had contended against
the usurped powers to the last of their blood and
their breath.

2. The Duke of York, afterwards James the

CHAP. I v.] 1660—1692. 15

Second, took to Ms own share of the phmder about
eighty thousand acres of lands belonging to Irish
Catholics, whose cause of forfeiture was nothing
more than that they had been the friends and sup-
porters of his murdered father, and the enemies of
his enemies.

3. Yet such was in the Irish nation the inherent
love of principle — a principle of honourable, but, in
this instance, most mistaken loyalty — that when this
royal plunderer was afterwards driven from the throne
by his British subjects, he took refuge in Ireland, and
the Irish Catholic nobility, gentry, and universal
people rallied round him, and shed their blood for
him, with a courage and a constancy worthy of a
better cause.

4. This section should be devoted to the Treaty of
Limerick. The Irish were not conquered. Lady, in
the war. They had, in the year preceding the treaty, .
driven William the Third with defeat and disgrace
from Limerick. In this Irish victory the women par- 1
ticipated. It is no romance. In the great defeat of
William, the women of Limerick fought and bled and
conquered. On the 3rd of October, 1691, the Treaty.'
of Limerick was signed. The Irish army, 30,000|
strong — the Irish nobility, and gentry, and people,
capitulated with the army and Crown of Great
Britain. They restored the allegiance of the Irish
nation to that Crown. Never was there a more useful
treaty to England than this was under the circum-
stances, lu was a most deliberate and solemn treaty
— deliberately confirmed by letters-patent from the
Crown. It extinguished a sanguinary civil war. It
restored the Irish nation to the dominion of England,'
and secured that dominion in perpetuity over one of
the fairest portions of the globe. Such was the value
given by the Irish people.

5. By that treaty, on the otherhand, thelrish Catholic
people stipulated for and obtained the pledge of " the
faith and honour" of the English Crown, for the

15 1692—1778. [chap. v.

equal protection by Irav of their pro]^crties and theii
liberties with all other subjects— and in particula.r for
the free and unfettered exercise of their religion.

CHAPTER Y.

Yeaes 1692—1778.

1. The Irish in every respect performed with scru-
yralous accuracy the stipulations on their part of
the Treaty of Limerick.

2. That treaty was totally violated by the British
Government, the moment it was perfectly safe to
violate it.

3. That violation was perpetrated by the enact-
ment of a code, of the most dexterous but atrocious
iniquity that ever stained the annals of legislation.

4. Let me select a few instances of the barbarity
with which the Treaty of Limerick was violated, under
these heads :

First.—" Property."

" Every Catholic was, by Act of Parliament, de-
] rived of the povrer of settling a jointure on any
Catholic v.'ife — or charging his lands with any provi-
sion for his daughters — or disposing by Avill of his
landed property. On his death the law divided his
lands equally amongst all his sons.

"All the relations of private life were thus violated.

" If the wife of a Catholic declared herself a Pro-
testant, the law enabled her not only to compel her
husband to give her a separate maintenance, but to
transfer to her the custody and guardianship of all
their children.

" Thus the wife was encouraged and empowered
successfully to rebel against her husband.

"If the eldest son of a Catholic father at any age,
however young, declared himself a Protestant, he
thereby made his father strict tenant for life, deprived

CHAP, v.] 1692—1778. 17

the father of all power to sell or dispose of his estate,
and such Protestant son became entitled to the abso-
lute dominion and ownership of the estate.

" Thus the eldest son was encouraged, and, indeed,
bribed by the law to rebel against his father.

" If any other child beside the eldest son declared
itself, at any age, a Protestant, such child at once
escaped the control of its father, and was entitled to
a maintenance out of the father's property.

" Thus the law encouraged every child to rebel
against its father.

" If any Catholic purchased for money any estate
in land, any Protestant M^as empowered by law to take
away that estate from the Catholic, and to enjoy it
without paying one shilling of the purchase-money.

" This was Law. The Catholic paid the money,
whereupon the Protestant took the estate. The Ca-
tholic lost both money and estate.

"If any Catholic got an estate in land by marriage,
by the gift or by the will of a relation or friend, any
Protestant could by law take the estate from the Ca-
tholic, and enjoy it himself.

" If any Catholic took a lease of a farm of land
as tenant at a rent for a life or lives, or for any
longer term than thirty-one years, any Protestant
could by law take the farm from the Catholic, and
enjoy the benefit of the lease.

" If any Catholic took a farm by lease for a term
not exceeding thirty-one years, as he might still by
law have done, and by his labour and industry raised
the value of the land so as to yield a profit equal to
one-third of the rent, any Protestant might then by
law evict the Catholic, and enjoy for the residue of
the term the fruit of the labour and industry of the
Catholic.

" If any Catholic had a horse worth more than five
pounds, any Protestant tendering £5 to the Catholic
owner, was by law entitled to take the horse, though
worth £50, or J 100, or more, and to keep it as his own.

B

18 1692—1778. [chap. v.

" If any Catholic, being the owner of a horse worth
more than five pounds, concealed his horse from any
Protestant, the Catholic, for the crime of concealing
his own horse, was liable to be punished by an^ im-
prisonment of three months, and a tine of three times
the value of the horse, whatever that might be.

" So much for the laws regulating by Act of Parlia-
ment the property — or rather plundering by due
course of law the property — of the Catholic.
.^.. "I notice —

t Secondly.— Education.

" If a Catholic kept school, or taught any person,
Protestant or Catholic, any species of literature or
science, such teacher was, for the crime of teaching,
punishable by law by banishment — and, if he re-
turned from banishment, he was subject to be hanged
as a felon.

"If a Catholic, whether a child or adult, attended,
in Ireland, a school kept by a Catholic, or was
privately instructed by a Catholic, such Catholic,
although a child in its early Jjjiaaijy, incurred a for-
^ - feiture of all its property, present or future.

; " If a Catholic child, however young, was sent to
any foreign country for education, such infant child
incurred a similar penalty — that is, a forfeiture of all
right to property, present or prospective.

" If any person in Ireland made any remittance of
money or goods, for the maintenance of any Irish
child educated in a foreign country, such person in-
curred a similar forfeiture.

Thirdly.— Personal Disabilities.

f "The law rendered every Catholic incapable of
\ holding a commission in the army or na^y, or even
^ to be a private soldier, imless he solemnlX'^M^I^^ ^^^
i religion.
~"'"The law rendered every Catholic incapable of
holding any office whatsoever of honour or emolu-
ment in the State. The exclusion was universal

"^ V

il

CHAP, v.] 1692—1778. 19

"A Catholic had no legal protection for life or
liberty. He could not be a Judge, Grand Juror,
Sheriff, Sub-sheriif, Master in Chancery, Six Clerk,
Barrister, Attorney, Agent or Solicitor, or Seneschal of
any manor, or even gamekeeper to a private gentleman.

" A Catholic could not be a member of any corpo-
ration, and Catholics were precluded by law from
residence in some corporate towns.

" Catholics were deprived of all right of voting for
members of the Commons House of Parliament.

" Catholic Peers were deprived of their right to sit
or vote in the House of Lords.

" Almost all these personal disabilities were equally
enforced by law against any Protestant who married
a Catholic wife, or whose child, under the age of
fourteen, was educated as a Catholic, although against
his consent.

Fourthly.— Religion.

" To teach the Catholic religion A\'as a transportable
felony ; to convert a Protestant to the Catholic faith -
was a capital offence, punishable as an act of treason. ■

" To be a Catholic regular, that is, a monk or friar,
was punishable by banishment, and to return from
banishment an act of high-treason.

"To be a Catholic Archbishop or Bishop, or to
exercise any ecclesiastical jurisdiction whatsoever in
the Catholic Church in Ireland, was punishable by
transportation — to return from such transportation i
was an act of high-treason, punishable by being \
hanged, embowelled alive, and afterwards quartered."

5. After tliis enumeration, will you, lUustrious j.
Lady, be pleased to recollect that every one of these j
enactments, that each and every of these laws, was ''
a palpable and direct violation of a solemn treaty, to
which the faith and honour of the British Crown
was pledged, and the justice of the English nation
unequivocally engaged.

6. There never yet was such a horrible code of

?*^^

20 1602—1778. [CHAP. V.

persecution invented, so cruel, so cold-blooded — cal-
culating— emaciating — univcrsal^-as this legislation,
which the Irish Orange faction — the Shaws — the
Lefroys — the Verners of the day did invent and enact —
a code exalted to the utmost height of infamy by the
.fact, that it was enacted in the basest violation of a
solemn engagement and deliberate treaty.

7. It is not possible for me to describe that code
in adequate language — it almost surpassed the elo-
quence of Burke to do so. "It had," as Burke
describes it — " it had a vicious perfection — it was a
complete system — full of coherence and consistency ;
well-digested and well-disposed in aU its parts. It
was a machine of wise and elaborate contrivance, and
as well fitted for the oppression, impoverishment, and
degradation of a people, and the debasement in them
of human nature itself, as ever proceeded from the
perverted ingenuity of man."

8. This code prevented the accumulation of pro-
perty, and punished industry as a crime. Was there
ever such legislation in any other country. Christian
or Pagan 1 But that is not all ; because the party w^ho
inflicted this horrible code, actually reproached the
Irish people wdth wilful and squalid poverty. ^

9. This code enforced ignorance by statute law,
and punished the acquisition of knowledge as a
felony. Is this credible ? — yet it is true. But that is
not ail ; for the party that thus persecuted learning,
reproached and still reproach the Irish people with
Ignorance.

10. There ; — there never was a people on the face
of the earth so cruelly, so basely treated as the Irish.
There never was a faction so stained with blood, so
blackened with crime, as that Orange faction, which,
under the name of Protestant, seeks to retain the
remnants of their abused power, by keeping in acti-
vity the spirit which created and continued the infa-
mous penal persecution of which I have thus faintly
traced an outline.

CHAP. VI. j 1778—1800. 21

It v.'oiild be worse tlian seditious, nay, actually
treasonable, to suppose that such a faction can ever
obtain countenance from you, Illustrious Lady, des-
tined, as I trust you are, at length to grant justice,
by an equalization of rights with your other subjects,
to your faithful, brave, long-oppressed, but magnani-
mous, people of Ireland.

CHAPTER VT.

Yeaes 1778— ISOO.

1. The persecution I have described — the perse-
cution founded on a breach of national faith and
public honour — lasted for eighty-six long years of
darkness, of shame, and of sorrow.

It was intended to reduce the Catholic people of
Ireland to the state of the most abject poverty, and
by the same means to extirpate the Catholic religion.

Here a question of some interest arises : — What
was the success of the experiment ? Before the ques-
tion is answered, let it be recollected that the experi-
ment had in favour of its success the Crov/n — the
Parliament — the Bishops and Clergy of the Established
Church — the Judges — the Army, the Navy — the Cor-
porations— Mayors — Aldermen — Sheriffs and Free-
men— the Magistracy, the Grand Jurors — the almost
universal mass of the property and wealth of the Irish
nation. It had besides the entire countenance, con-
currence, and support of England and Scotland — not
a tongue could utter in public one word against it, or
if it so uttered even one word, it was stopped for
ever — not a pen could write one word in opposition.

Yet with all these tremendous advantages, what
was the success of the experiment ]

Illustrious Lady, it failed — it totally failed. A
just estimate would state that the Catholics went into
the persecution about two millions in number ; the
Protestant persecutors — for, at that day, they were all
persecutors— were about one million. The Catholics

^^1 7 78— 1800. [chap. VI.

"have increased to nearly seven millions — the Protes-
tants still scarcely exceed the original million. _ The
comparative increase of the one under persecution is
enormous — the comparative decrease of the other
whilst persecuting is astounding. In the first instance
the Catholics were at the utmost only two to one — in
the second, they are near seven to one :

"Thus captive Israel multiplied in chains.'*

Blessed be God ! So may persecution fail in
every country, until it shall universally be admitted
to be as useless for conversion, as its exercise is debas-
ing and degrading in those who employ it.

2. The time for a relaxation of the " Penal Code " —
that was the technical name given to the persecuting
code — had at length arrived. In 1775 the obstinate
refusal of the British Government to do "justice to
America" TV as checked by blood. In 1777 a British
army, in its " pride of place," surrendered at Saratoga
to the once despised, insulted, and calumniated
"Provincials." It was in 1778 too late to conciliate
America. She proclaimed her independence, and
America was for ever lost to the British Crown.

3. The ancient enemies of England in Europe
armed, and assailed her. The English Government
in their adversity learned one lesson from fatal expe-
rience ; they for the first time tried conciliation to
Ireland. The Penal Code was relaxed in 1778. Con-
ciliation succeeded, as it always will with the Irish
people. America, it is true, was lost by refusing to
conciliate— but Ireland was preserved to the British
Crown by conciliation.

4. The relaxation of the "Penal Code," in 1778,
was, in its own nature, a large instalment of the debt
of " Justice to the Catholic people of Ireland." It
restored to the Catholics the same power and domi-
nion over the property they then held as the Protes-
tants always enjoyed ; and it enabled the Catholics
to acquire as tenants, or as purchasers, any interest i»

c»A>

CHAP, VI.] 1778—1800. 23

lands for any terms or years, though they may be as
long as one thousand years. But still they could not
acquire by purchase, or as tenants, Ruy freehold inte-
rests. The Catholics wisely accepted the instalment,
and went on, vv^ith increased security and power, to
look for the rest of the debt of justice.

5. In 1782, England stood alone in a contest with
the greatest power in the world — the combined fleets
of her enemies, as one of the rare instances in hei
naval annals, rode triumphant and unopposed in the
British Channel. Accordingly the " Penal Code " was
once again relaxed — conciliated Ireland poured tYk^^nty
thousand seamen and active landsmen into the Bri-
tish navy — enabled Rodney to pursue the French
fleet to the West Indies ; where, in his action with
De Grasse, Irish valour, emulating, and, if that were
possible, exceeding British bravery, rendered the
"meteor flag of England" once more victorious —
crushed the naval power of the enemy — saved not
only the West Indian Colonies, but also the honour of
the British Crown, and strewed laurels over a peace
which would otherwise have been ignominious as well
as disastrous. ._

6. The relaxation of the year 178^' was a second
instalment of the debt of " Justice to Ireland." It
was a noble instalment. It enabled the Catholics to
acquire freehold pro j)erty; for lives or of inheritance.
But it did more ;— for the first time after ninety years
of persecuted learning, it enabled the Cathohcs to
open schools and to educate their youth in literature
and religion. The Catholics wisely accepted that in-
stalment, which restored in full their rights of pro-
perty, and gave them the inestimable right of educa-
tion. They gratefully accepted the instalment, and
wisely, and, with increased power, commenced a new-
struggle for the rest.

7. The admission of the Catholics to the tenancy
of lands in 1778, increased considerably the rents of
^e Protestant landlords in Ireland The permission

24 1778—1800. [chap vi.

to the Catholics, in 1782, to purchase estates, enhanced
enormously the value of the property of all the Pro-
testants of Ireland, Conciliation and prosperity went
hand in hand ; and that which benevolence alone
would have suggested, was proved by experience to be
the best means to increase the value of their property,
which the most rigid and the most selfish prudence
would have dictated to the Protestant proprietors of
Ireland.

8. There were other events, in 1782, which merit
more than the passing glance I can now bestow upon
them — events of the deepest, the most soul-stirring
interest. For the present, suffice it to say, that the
Irish Parliament which asserted the legislative inde-
pendence of Ireland, was not only the most advanta-
geous to its constituents, but was at the same time
the most loyal to the British Crown, and the most
useful to the British power. It was that Parliament
which voted and paid the twenty thousand -Irish Ca-
tholics who rushed to man the British fleets, and
contributed to Rodney's victory. Ireland never had
a Parliament more attached to British connexion than
the Iric>h Parliament which asserted Irish legislative
independence.

9. Ten years followed of great and increasing
prosperity in Ireland — but they were years of peace
and power in England, and there was no occasion to
conciliate or court the Catholics of Ireland. Accord-
ingly no further advance was made in their eman-
cipation. The Catholics, however, shared in the
universal prosperity of Ireland.

y. 10. The year 1792 found matters in this condition
The prosperity which the Catholics enjoyed in common
with their other countrymen — the property which
they were daily acquiring, made them impatient for
l)olitical rights. They therefore petitioned the Irish
House of Commons that the profession of the law
might be opened to them, and for the elective fran-
chise. It was with difficulty one member could be

CHAP, vi.] 177S— ISOO. 25

procured to move that the petition should be laid
upon the table, and another to second it. The motion
was opposed by the member for Kildare, Mr. Latouche;
he moved that the petition should be rejected — there
was no danger apprehended from its rejection. It
was accordingly rejected, all the members of the
Government voting for that rejection.

11. But, before the close of 1792, a new scene was
opened. The French armies defeated their enemies
at every point. T]»3 Netherlands were concpiered,
and a torrent of republicanism, driven on by military
power, threatened every State in Europe. The cannon
of the battle of Gemappe were heard at St. James's, —
the wisdom of conciliating the Catholics was felt and
understood ; and in the latter end of that same year,
1792 — in the early part of which the Government
had ignominiously rejected the Catholic petition
with contempt — that same Government brought in a
bill still further to relax the " Penal Code ;" and early
in the next year brought in another bill, granting, orl
should rather say restoring, greater privileges to the
Catholics.

12. By the efiect of both these bills, the bar was
opened to the Catholics — they might become barris-
ters, but not King's counsel — they could be attorneys
and solicitors — they could be freemen of the lay cor-
porations— the Grand Jury box and the magistracy
w^ere opened to them — they were allowed to obtain
the rank of colonel in the army — and, still greater
than all, they were allowed to acquire the elective
franchise, and to vote for members of Parliament.
This was the tliird great instalment of public justice
obtained by the Catholics of Ireland.

13. But it should be recollected that these conces-
sions were made more in fear than in friendship.
The revolutionary war was about to commence — the
flames of republicanism had spread far and near. It
was eagerly caught up amongst the Protestant and
especially among the Presbyterian population of the

26 1778—1800. [CHAP. vi.

north of Ireland. BeKast was its •warmest focus. It
was the deep interest of the British Government to
detach the w^ealth and intelligence of the Catholics of
Ireland from the reiniblican party. This policy was
adopted. The Catholics were conciliated. The
Catholic nobility, gentry, mercantile, and other edu-
cated classes, almost to a man, separated from the
republican party. That w^hich would otherwise have
been a revolution, became only an unsuccessful rebel-
lion. The intelligent and leading Catholics were
conciL;.^8d ; and Ireland was once again, by the wise
policy of concession and conciliation, saved to the
British Crown.

14. Illustrious Lady, the Rebellion of 1798 itself
was, almost avowedly, and beyond a doubt provablj^
fomented to enable the British Government to extin-
guish the Irish legislative independence, and to bring
about the Union. But the instrument was nearly too
powerful for the unskilful hands that used it; and if the
Catholic wealth, education, and intelligence had joined
the rebellion, it would probably have been successful.

15. One word upon the legislative independence
of Ireland— that which is now called a " Bepeal of the
Union." It is said to be a severance of the empire — ■
a separation of the two countries. Illustrious Lady,
these statements are made by men who know them to
be unfounded. An Irish legislative independence
would, on the contrary, be the strongest and most
durable connexion between your Mtijesty's Irish and
your British dominions. It would, by conciliating
your Irish subjects, and attending to their wants and
■wishes, render the separation of Ireland from the law-
ful dominion of your Crown utterly impossible.

16. No country ever rose so rapidly in trade,
manufactures, commerce, agricultural wealth, and
general prosperity, as Ireland did from the year 1782
until the year 1798, when the "fomented rebellion"
broke out, and for a space, a passing and transitory
space, marred the fair prospects of Ireland.

CHAP, vil] 1800. 27

CHAPTER VII.
TiiE Yeak 1800.

1. This year would justify a volume to itself. It
was the year that consummated the crimes which,
during nearly seven centuries, the English Govern-
ment perpetrated against Ireland. It was the year
of the destruction of the Irish legislature. It was
the fatal, ever-to-be-accursed year of the enactment
of the Union.

2. The Union was inflicted on Ireland by the
combined operation of terror, torture, force, fraud,
and corruption.

3. The contrivers of the Union kept on foot and
fomented the embers of a lingering rebellion. They
hallooed the Protestant against the Catholic, and the
Catholic against the Protestant. They carefully kept
alive domestic dissensions, for the purposes of sub-
jugation.

4. AVliilst the Union Avas in progress, the Habeas
Corpus Act was suspended — all constitutional freedom
was annihilated in Ireland — martial law was pro-
claimed— the use of torture was frequent — liberty,
life, or property had no protection — public opinion
was stifled — trials by court-martial were familiar —
meetings legally convened by sheriffs and magistrates
were dispersed by military violence — the voice of
Ireland was suppressed — the Irish people had no
protection. Once again, I repeat, martial law wa^
proclaimed. Thus the Union was achieved in total
despite of the Irish nation.

5. But this was not all. The most enormous and
the basest corruption was resorted to. Lord John
Russell is reported to have stated some time ago, at a
public dinner, that the Union Avas carried at an ex-
pense of c£800,000. He was much mistaken, speaking
as he did merely from a vague recollection. The par-

28 1800. [chap. VII.

liamentaiy documents will show liim that the one item
of the purchase-money of rotten and nomination
boroughs, cost no less a sum than one million, tw^o
hundred and forty-fi\"e thousand pounds. The pecu-
niary corruption amounted altogether to about three
millions of pounds sterling.

6. But this was not all. The expenditure . of pa-
tronage was still more open, avow^ed, and profligate.
Peerages were a familiar staple of traffic — the com-
mand of ships of the line and of regiments — the offices
of chief and puisne judges, the stations of arch-
bishops and bishops, commissionerships of the
revenue, and all species of collectorships — in short,
all grades of offices. The sanctuary of the law and the
temples of religion were trafficked upon as bribes,
and given in exchange for votes in Parliament in fa-
vour of the Union.

7. But this was not all. Notwithstanding all the
resources of intimidation and terror — of martial law
and military torture — of the most gigantic bribery
ever exhibited — the Union could not be carried until
several of the nomination boroughs were purchased,
to return a number of Scotchmen and Englishmen,
all of whom held rank in the army or navy, or other
offices under Government, removable at pleasure.
The number of such " aliens" was almost as great as
the majority by which the Union was carried.

8. The Union was not a treaty or compact. Illus-
trious Lady. It was not a bargain or agreement. It
had its origin in, and w^as carried by force, fraud,
terror, torture, and corruption. It has to this hour no
binding power but what it derives from force. It is
still a mere name. The countries are not united. The
Irish are still treated as " aliens in blood and in re-
ligion."

9. Thus was the legislative independence of Ire-
land extinguished. Tiius was the greatest crime ever
perpetrated by the EngUsh Government upon Ireland
consummate

CHAi'. VII.] ISOO. 29

10. The citrocity of the manner of carrying the
Union was equalled only by the injustice of the terms
to which Ireland was subjected.

11. I hate to dwell on this detestable subject. ]
will put forward only two of the features of the in-
justice done to Ireland. The one relates to finance—
the other to representation.

12. The epitoi.-oof the financial fraud perpetrated
against the Iri.sh is just this : At the time of the
Union, Ireland owed twenty millions of funded debt ;
England owed four hundred and forty-six millions.
If the Union were a fair and reasonable treaty, the
debts of the two countries should continue to bear
the same proportions. -Perhaps even that arrange-
ment would, under all the circumstances, be harsh
towards Ireland. But what is the consequence to
Ireland of the Union ? It is this, that all the land,
houses, and other property, real and personal, of Ire-
land, are now pledged to the repayment equally with
England of eight hundred and forty millions of
jjounds sterling ! ! ! At the utmost the Irish ought to
owe a sum not exceeding forty millions. By the
Union we are made to owe eight hundred and forty
millions. But for the Union, the entire Irish debt
would have been long since paid off, and Ireland, like
Norway, would have no national debt. Never was
there a people so unjustly treated as the Irish !

13. The gross injustice done to Ireland in the
matter of representation in the United Parliament was
this : The ingredients to entitle either country to re-
presentation were said by the fabricators of the
Union to be — population and property. The only
evidences of property that Lord Castlereagli would
allow were exports, imports, and revenue — he totally
omitted rental ; yet, upon his own data, Ireland was
entitled to 108, out of a total of 658 representatives.

He took off eight, of his own will and pleasure, and
left Ireland but one hundred members.

But, in truth, he ought to have taken into calcula-

30 1800—1829. [chap. Vlll.

tion the relative rental of each country, and then the
right of Ireland to 169 members would appear. Still
more, had the ingredients of a relative representation
consisted, as they ought to have consisted, solely of
population and revenue, the right of Ireland to 176
members would be demonstrated.

14. If the Union had been a fair treaty, no chicanery
could have deprived Ireland of, at t^e least, 150 mem-
bers ; yet one-third were struck off at the despotic
will and pleasure of the English Government. This
was indeed a grievous injustice, and much of the in-
security of the Union rests upon it. Substantial jus-
tice, in this respect, has ever been withheld. Thus
we are degraded and insulted by the Union.

CHAPTER VIII.

Years 1800—1829.

1. The alleged object of the Union was to con-
solidate the inhabitants of both islands into one
nation — one people. The most flattering hopes were
held out, the most solemn pledges were vowed. Ire-
land was no longer to be an alien and a stranger to
British liberty. The religion of the inhabitants was
no longer to be a badge for persecution — the nations
were to be identified — the same privileges — the same
laws — the same liberties.

They trumpeted, until the ear was tired and all
good taste nauseated, the hackneyed quotation, the
^'Paribus se legihis" — the ^^ Invictce gentes" — the
"J^terna in fed era.''

2. These were words — Latin or English, they were
mere words — Ireland lost everything and got nothing
by the Union. Pitt behaved with some dignity when
he resigned the office of Prime Minister, on finding
that George the Third i:efused to allow him to redeem
the Union pledge of granting Catholic Emancipation.
But that dignity was dragged in the kennel, when he

CHAP. VIIl] 1800—1829. 31

afterwards consented to be minister with his pledge
broken and his faith violated. Yet there are still
" Pitt Clubs "—are there not 1— in England ! ! ! ^

3. Ireland lost everything and gained nothing by
the Union. There is one great evil in the political
economy of Ireland — there is one incurable plague--
spot in the state of Ireland. It is, that nine-tenths
of the soil belong to absentees. This evil was felt as
a curse, pregnant with every possible woe, even before
the Union. It has enormously increased since — the .
Union must inevitably have increased, and must
continue to increase absenteeism. Even all the
establishments necessary to carry on the Government,
save one — that of the Lord Lieutenant — have become
absentees.

4. Ireland lost all and gained nothing by the
Union. Every promise was broken, every pledge was
violated. Ireland struggled and prayed, and cried
out to friends for aid, and to Parliament for
relief.

5. At length a change came over the spirit of our
proceedings. The people of Ireland ceased to court
patronage, or to hope for relief from their friends.
They became " friends to themselves ;" and after |
twenty-six years of agitation, they forced the conces-.»
sion of Emancipation. They compelled the most
powerful as well as the most tricky, the most daring
as well as the most dexterous, of their enemies to
concede Emancipation.

6. Wellington and Peel— blessed be heaven! —
we defeated you. Our peaceable combination — blood-
less, unstained, crimeless — was too strong for the mili- ;
tary glory — bah ! — of the one, and for all the little arts, |
the debasing chicanery, the plausible delusions, of |
the other. Both at length conceded, but without!
dignity, without generosity, without candour, with- ''
out sincerity. Nay, there was a littleness in the con-
cession almost incredible, were it not part of public
history. They emancipated a people, and by the

32 1800— 1S29. [cnAP. Yiil.

same act they proscribed an individual. Peel and
^Yellington, we defeated and drove you before us
into coerced liberality, and you left every remnant of
character behind you as the spoil of the victors.

7. There was an intermediate period in which
Emancipation could have been conceded with a good
grace, and would have been accepted as a boon. It
was the year 1825. In that year, when everything
favoured the grant of Emancipation — when it could
have been granted with grace and dignity — when it
could have been bestowed as the emanation of the
mighty minds of statesmen and conquerors, — in 1825,
Wellington and Peel successfully op]~>osed Emancipa-
tion, and thus preserved that which might have been
their glorious triumph, to become the instrument of
their own degradation.

8. Let it not be forgotten that the House of
Commons three times during these twenty-nine years
passed an Emancipation bill ; but that biU was, each
<^f those times, rejected by the House of Lords. The
Lords, however, yielded to the fourth assault, backed
as it was by the power of the Irish nation. AVe at
length defeated the perpetual enemy of Ireland —the
British House of Lords.

9. Let it be recollected that our struggle was for
" freedom of conscience." Oh ! how ignorant are the
men who boast of Protestant tolerance, and declaim
on Cathohc bigotry ! This calumny was one of the
worst evils vre formerly endured. At present we

. laugh it to scorn. The history of the persecutions

I perpetrated by the Protestant Established Church of

England, upon Catholics on the one hand, and upon

Presbyterians and other Protestant dissenters on the

other, is one of the blackest in the page of time.

10. The Irish Catholics, three times since the
Reformation restored to power, never persecuted a
single person — blessed be the great God !

CHAP. IX.] 1829—1840. 33

CHAPTER., IX.

Years 1829—1840.

1. Theee never was a people on the face of tl e
earth so cruelly, so basely, so unjustly treated as
the people of Ireland have been by the English
Government.

2. The Catholics being emancipated, the people of
England had leisure to awaken to a sense of the
delusions practised upon them, by false alarms, on the
score of religion and loyalty. The delusion was most
valuable to the deluders. At length the monstrous
nature of what was called Parliamentary representa-
tion stared the British people in the face. It was,
perhaps, the greatest and most ludicrous farce that
had ever been played on the great stage of the world.
Luckily a blunder, such as no man out of a madhouse
had ever before committed — a blunder of the Duke of
Wellington— brought the absurdity and oppression of
this farce into so glaring a point of view, as to render
it impossible to be continued. He, as a Prime ]\Iinis-
ter of England, declared his conviction that the nomi-
nation and rotten-borough system of England was
Ihe actual perfection of political sagacity — nay, he
almost exalted it into an emanation of a diviner mind.

This was irresistible — common sense revolted —
Reform w^as inevitable.

3. Again the most gross and glaring injustice was
done to Ireland. It is admitted that, without the
aid of the Irish members, Reform could not have been
carried. Even the most nipvlignant of our enemies,
^Stanley, has admitted that fact. To the Irish, there-
fore, a deep debt of gratitude v/as due from the British
Reformers. But how have we been requited 1 We
have been treated with the basest and most atrocious
ingratitude.

4. We are still suffering under the ingratitude of
the British Reformers — under the consistent injustice
of the British Tories, ^

34 1829—1840. [chap. ix.

Under four heads I avlU, as briefly as possible,
sketch our complaints — not the abject complaint of
those who have no hope in, and no reliance upon,
their own virtue. I make the complaint in the lan-
guage of a freeman. I make it on behalf of a people
who have made others free, and who deserve to be
free themselves. As my only preface, I desire these
four facts to be remembered.

1st. That the Irish representatives turned the scale
of victory, and carried the English Parliamentary
Eeform Bill.

2nd. They equally, and by the same Act, carried
the Scotch Reform Bill.

3rd. They equally, and by inevitable consequence,
carried the English Municipal Reform Bill.

4th. They equally carried the Scotch Municipal
Eeform Bill.

5. Even if they had not these merits, they were
entitled, unless the Union be an insulting mockery —
they were — the Irish were — on the plainest principles
of common sense, entitled to equal measures of Pteform
with England and Scotland. This the Union enti-
tled them to. But their case has this glorious adjunct
to its right — namely, that they had principally con-
tributed to obtain Reform for the two other countries.

6. The complaints of the Irish people are these :
My first complaint is, that the Irish did not get an

equal Parliamentary Reform Bill with Scotland or-
with England.

" 1st. Ireland did not get the proper portion of
representatives. Wales got an increase of six members
upon a population of 800,"o00. Scotland, upon a popu-
lation of 2,300,000, got an increase of eight. Ireland,
upon a population of 8,000,000, got an increase of
five.

" Scotland increased her representatives by one in
five — Wales by one in six — Ireland by one in tenj ! !
and even one of these was given against not for Ire-
land—the second member for the University of Dublin.
But let it be one in ten.

CHAP. IX.] 1829—1840. 35

" Thus the original iniquity of the Union in respect
to representation, was enhanced by the Eeform JBill.
Ireland, upon the score of population and property,
was entitled to 176 members out of 658 — we offered
to take 125.

" 2nd. The next and still greater injustice done to
Ireland was in the nature of the franchise.

" In the towns, though tlie franchise is nominally
the same, yet it is substantially and really infinitely
greater in Ireland than in England. A house worth
ten pounds a-year gives the franchise in London and
in Liverpool. How few, how very few houses are
there in either not worth ten pounds a-year !

" A house worth ten pounds a-year gives the fran-
chise in Ennis or in Youghal. How few houses are
there in these towns, or similar towns in Ireland,
worth ten pounds a-year ! To be just, this franchise
should, for a ten-pound house in England, allow a
five-pound house in Ireland. I complain of the in-
justice thus done us, by making that nominally the
same which is substantially different.

"In the county constituencies, the injustice was
still more glaring. V^e have, in fact, but two fran-
chises for the people — they are both of ten pounds
clear annual value, ruled to be above rent — an enor-
mously high rate of franchise — the one of a freehold
tenure, the other for a term of twenty years.

" Contrast this with England, Avhich, by her Eeform
Bill, multiplied her franchises to nine different and
distinct species.

" England, a rich country, has nine different species
of franchise, to meet every gradation of property,
including in them the more ancient 40s. freehold
franchise.

"Ireland, infinitely the poorer country, has, in fact,
for her people only two franchises, and these so enor-
mously high as ten pounds clear annual value.

" Perhaps the annals of history never displayed a
more disgusting injustice than vras thus committed
by the Irish Reform Bill upon the Irish people.

36 1829—1840. [CHAP. IX.

"The third base act of ingratitude committed by
the English Reformers upon the people of Ireland,
was the ' base and bloody ' Coercion Act, in the very
spirit in which Cromwell and Ireton acted. In that
very spirit the first reformed Parliament passed the
atrocious Coercion Act, as the reward of the Irish
people for their successful efforts in the cause of
Reform. Yes ; Anglesey, Stanley, _ Lord Grey,
Brougham — all, all joined in recompensing us for our
patriotic exertions in their behalf, by abohshing all
constitutional liberty, by annihilating the trial by
jury, and leaving the lives, liberties, and properties of
the people of Ireland, at the mercy of mihtary caprice,
violence, or passion.

" Sacred Heaven ! — were there ever a people so
cruelly, so vilely treated as the people of Ireland 1
Here, indeed, was a specimen of the gratitude of
British Reformers ! ! !

"The fourth complaint I have to make affects
only the British Tories. This injustice is done
to the people of Ireland by the House of Lords.
England has reformed Municipal Corporations —
Scotland has reformed Municipal Corporations.

"Ireland was for several years pertinaciously refused
reformed Municipal Corporations.

" Ireland has been still more outrageously insulted
by the Corporate Reform Bill, wliich has been at
length — I will not say conceded, but flung to her — as
one would fling offal to a dog.

" Ireland has been insulted by the Irish Corporate
Reform Bill, flung to her after so many years of
refusal :

" Firstly — Because, by the Irish Corporate Reform
Bill, the new corporations are eviscerated of all the
real power and authority necessary to enable them to
give protection to the people in the corporate towns
and cities ; to enable them to watch over the adminis-
tration of justice ; to introduce economy in the expen-
diture, and moderation in the levying, of local taxes.

CHAP. ly.] 1829—1840. 37

In short, the Irish Corporate Reform Act has produced
a mongrel species of corporation, more dead than alive
— powerless and paralyzed.

" Secondly — The Irish Corporate Reform Bill is an
insult to the people of our towns and cities, by the
contrast of the municipal franchise in England com-
pared with that in Ireland, In the English towns and
cities, every man rated to the poor, no matter at how
low an amount, is entitled to the municipal franchise,
and to be placed accordingly on the burgess roll. In
Ireland, on the contrary, no man is entitled to the
municipal franchise, or to be placed on the burgess
roll, unless he is rated to the full amount of ten
pounds. The law thus includes all the English wlio
are rated at all ; and excludes at the same time all the
Irish who are rated at any sum under ten pounds, and
who form a most numerous class. And this insult is
aggravated by those who say that there is a union
between England and Ireland ! — Bah !

" Thirdly — Another contrast renders the Irish Cor-
porate Reform Bill a yet more aggravated insult to the
Irish people. It is this : — In the English towns and
cities each person on the burgess roll has his right to
vote qualified by the condition of paying only one tax,
namely, the poor-rate, including (if any) the burgess-
rate ; whereas in Ireland (for example, in the city of
Dublin), every person on the burgess roll lias his
right to vote qualified by the necessity of paj'ing at
least nine, and, almost ""n all instances, no less than
eleven, different taxes — a necessity which reduces the
number of persons actually entitled to make use of the
municipal franchise by at least one-third."

There are other points of inferiority in the Trisli Cor-
porate Reform Bill which I scorn to take the trouble of
noticing. ^ The complaint I make is sufficiently intel-
ligible to justify our indignation and utter disgust.

With this complaint I close the catalogue of actnal
wrongs perpetrated upon Ireland since the passing of
the Emancipation Bill.

38 CONCLUSION.

7. There remains tlie question of tithes, now called
Tithe Rentcharge. Ireland feels the ancient and
long-continued injustice to the heart's core. The
Catholic people of Ireland support and maintain a
perfect hierarchy in their own Church. They support
four archbishops — twenty-five bishops — many deans
— vicars-general — with more than three thousand
parish priests and curates, to administer to the spiri-
tual wants of about seven millions of Christians.
Can they — ought they to be content to be compelled
to contribute anything to the support of a hierarchy
with which they are not in communion 1 No ! — they
are not — they cannot — they ought not to be content
whilst one atom of the present tithe system remains in
existence.

If tithes be public property — and what else are
they ? — alleviate the burden on the public, and appro-
priate the residue to public and national purposes,
especially to education. This is common sense and
common honesty. We can never settle into content-
ment with less.

CONCLUSION".

These pages contain a faint outline of the sad story
of the woes and miseries of Ireland. The features of
that story are characterized by the most odious
crimes committed by the English rulers on the Irish
people. Rapine, confiscation, murder, massacre,
treachery, sacrilege, wholesale devastation, and injus-
tice of every kind, continued in many of its odious
forms to the present hour.

The form of persecution is altered — the spirit re-
mains the same. Those who heretofore would have
used the dagger or the knife of the assassin, employ
now only the tongue or the pen of the calumniator ;
and instead of murdering bodies, exhaust their ener-

CONCLUSION. 39

gies in assassinating reputation. Calumny has been
substituted for murder; and the faction which has so
long rioted in Irish blood, consoles its virulent and
malignant passions by indulging in ever-varying,
never-dying falsehood and truculent slander.

What is the present condition of the Irish mind —
v^jijit ought to be the designs of the patriots of Ire-
land]

We feel and understand that, if the Union was not
in existence — if Ireland had her own Parliament, the
popular majority would have long since carried every
measure of salutary and useful reform. Instead of
being behindhand Avith England and Scotland, we
should have taken the lead, and achieved for ourselves
all and more than we have contributed to achieve for
them.

If there were no Union, Ireland would be the part
of the British dominions in which greater progress
would have been made in civil and religious liberty,
than in any other part subject to the British Crown.
If the Union had not been carried, Ireland would have .
long since paid off her national debt, and been now
almost entirely free from taxation.

The Union, and the Union alone, stands in the way
of our achieving for ourselves every political blessing.

Injustice — degradation — comparative weakness —
wide-spread poverty — unendurable political inferior-
ity— these are the fruits of the Union.

Of its effects on the people of Ireland, I will state
but one fact— that, upon a population of eight mil-
lions, there are two millions, three hundred thousand
individuals dependent for subsistence on casual cha-
rity ! ! ! And this in one of the most abundantly
fertile countries on the globe !

The Irish insisted and do insist that nothing can
be a greater outrage than to make them submit to the
degradation and burden of a union with another
country, and, at the same time, to withhold from them
a full equalization of privileges and franchises with

40 CONCLUSION.

that other countiy. Such equalization is the meaning
of the word " union ;" any other anion is a permanent
falsehood — " a living lie."

Firstly. — The Union entitled the Catholics of
Ireland — that is, emphatically the people of Ireland —
to religious equality with the English and Scotch. It
^\'as thus distinctly and in writing avowed by Pitt, in
his negotiation with Catholic Peers and others who
called themselves the leaders of the Catholic people.
But, what is better, that right was essential to the
very "nature of the Union.

In this respect the Union was for twenty-nine years
" a living lie."

The partial realization of the Union in this respect,
after a struggle of twenty-nine years, is entirely due
to the virtue of the Irish people, and not to the good
sense or the honesty of the English Government.

But as long as the people of Ireland are compelled
to do that wdiich neither the people of England nor
the people of Scotland do — that is, to support the
Church of the minority — so long will the Union con-
tinue to be in that respect " a living lie."

Secondly. — The Union entitled the people of Ire-
land to the same elective franchise with the people of
England. In this respect the Union entitled the
people of Ireland to a perfect equality, not only in
name, but in substance, in the enjoyment of the elec-
tive franchise.

In this regard the Union is to the present day " a
livino- lie "—a lie aggravated by base ingratitude and
vile injustice.

Thirdly. — The Union entitled the people of Ireland
to an adequate portion of the representation in Par-
liament. But such proportion has been scornfully
and contemptuously refused. The Union is, therefore,
in this essential respect, " a living lie."

Fourthly. — The Union entitled the people of
Ireland to an identity of relief with England, from
corporate monopoly, bigotry, plunder, and- abuse of

coNCLitsio:^. 41

every other kind. I have ah-eady shown how insult-
ing is the contrast between the Corporate Reforms
of England and of Ireland : the Union, therefore, is
again, in this respect, " a living lie."

In respect to the Municipal Keform ; in respect to
the Elective Franchise ; in respect to the Represen-
tation in Parliament — but, above all and before al], in
respect to the accursed Tithe System — the U mon is
" a living lie."

The people of Ireland, therefore, demand the Repeal
of the Union and the restoration of their domestic
Parliament.

The Precursor Association declared, in the name
and with the assent of the Irish people, that they
might have consented to the continuance of the
Union, if justice had been done them — if the fran-
chise had been simplified and much extended — if the
corporations had been reformed and continued — if
the number of Irish members had been augmented in
a just proportion— and if the tithe system had been
abolished, and conscience left completely free.

But, on the other hand, these just claims being re-
jected— these just demands being refused— our just
rights being withheld, the Irish people are too nume-
rous, too wise, and too good, to despair, or to hesitate
on the course they should adopt. The restoration of
the national legislature is, therefore, again insisted
upon ; and no compromise, no pause, no cessation of
that demand shall be allowed until Ireland is herself
again.

One word to close. No honest man ever despaired
of his country. _ No wise enemy will place his reliance
on the difficulties which may lie in the way between
seven millions of human beings and that liberty
which they feel to be their righc. For them there can
be no impossibility.

I repeat it — that as surely as to-morrow's sun will
rise, Ireland will assert her rights for herself, preser-
ving the golden and nnonerous link of the Crown —

42 OBSERVATIONS,

true to the principles of unaffected and genuine
allegiance ; but determined, while she preserves her
loyalty to the British throne, to \dndicate her title to
constitutional freedom for the Irish people.

In short, Ireland demands that faction should no
longer be encouraged; that the Government should
be carried on for the Irish people, and not against
them. She is ready and desirous to assist the Scotch
and English Reformers to extend their franchises and
consolidate their rights ; but she has in vain insisted
on being an equal sharer in every political advantage.
She has vainly sought Equality — Identity. She has
been refused — contemptuously refused. Her last
demand is free from any alternative —

IT IS THE REPEAL !

OBSEEVATIONS, PEOOFS, AND
ILLUSTEATIONS.

CHAPTER I.

Years 1172—1612.

TO THE FIRST SECTION.

I HAVE long felt the inconvenience resulting from the
ignorance of the English people generally of the
history of Ireland. A^Tiy should they not be ignorant
of that history 1 The story itself is fuU of no other
interest than a painful one, disgusting from its details
of barbarous infliction on the one hand, and partial
and therefore driftless resistance on the other. To
the English it seems enough to know, that, one way

CHAP. I.] PROOFS, ETC. 43

or the other, Ireland had become subject to England.
It was easily taken for granted that the mode of
subjugation was open war and honourable conquest ;
and finally that the Union was nothing more than
the raising up of a vassal-people to a participation
in the popular rights and political condition of
the conquerors, brought about by identifjdng both
nations.

We are come to a period in which it is most im-
portant to have these matters inquired into and
understood. To provoke the inquiry, and to facili-
tate the comprehension of the facts of Irish history,
I have drav\^n up the foregoing memoir. I have
arranged it by its chronology, in such a manner as
to bring out in masses the iniquities practised by the
English Government upon the Irish, with the full
approbation, or at least entire acquiescence, of the
British people. I am very desirous to have it un-
equivocally understood, that one great object of mine
is to involve the people of England in much — in very
much of the guilt of their Government. If the
English people were not influenced by a bigotry,
violent as it is unjust, against the Catholic religion
on the one hand, and strong national antipathy
against the Irish people o*n the other, the Govern-
ment could not have so long persevered in its course
of injustice and oppression. The bad passions of the
English people, which gave an evil strength to the
Enghsh Government for the oppression of the Irish,
still subsist, little diminished, and less mitigated.

My purpose to rouse the attention of the British
nation to the sad story of Ireland, is only partiallj',
and indeed in small part, satisfied by the foregoing
memoir. It will be more fully answered by confirm-
ing the general assertions of that memoir by means of
particular details — details taken almost exclusively
from English and Protestant historians, and given in
the very words of these writers.

He who reads my extracts from authors adverse ir.

44 OBSERVATIONS, [cHAP. I.

every sense of the word to Ireland, will entertain no
doubt of the accuracy of my statements, as they are
supported by such testimony.

The firsi writer whom I quote. Sir John Davies,
was for many years Attorney- General in Ireland to
that pragmatical and despicable tyrant, James the
First. I think the nature of the English acquisition
of Ireland, and the mode in which the supposed con-
querors disposed of the country, will be best under-
stood from him.

The first specimen of the flippancy with which the
English disposed of Ireland, after Henry II. had been
but a few weeks in Ireland, is thus described {Davies'
Historical Relations) : —

" All Ireland was, by Henry II., cantonized among
ten of the English nation (viz., the Earl Strongbow,
Robert Fitz-Stephens, Miles de Cogan, Philip Bruce,
Sir Hugh de Lacy, Sir John Courcey, William Burke
Fitz-Andelm, Sir Thomas de Clare, Otho de Grandi-
son, and Robert Le Poer) ; and though they had not
gained possession of one-third part of the kingdom,
yet in title they were owners and lords of all, so as
nothing was left to be granted to the natives ! ! !
And therefore w^e do not find in any record or his-
tory, for the space of 'three hundred years after
these adventurers first arrived in Ireland, that any
Irish lord obtained a grant of his country from
the Crown, but only the King of Thomond, who
had a grant, but only during King Henry the
Third's minority ; and Roderick O'Connor, King
of Connaught, to whom King Henry 11. , before
this distribution was made, did grant that he should
be king under him, and keep his kingdom of Con-
naught in the same good and peaceable state in
which he kept it before his invasion of Ireland."

This first act of English domination is quite cha-
racteristic. It is an epitome of all^ the subsequent
history. With a precarious possession, through the
grant of an Irish chieftain, MacMurrough, of less than

CHAP. I.] PROOFS, ETC. 45

one-tliird of Ireland, they at once " leave nothing for
the natives " ! ! !

It is true, indeed, that Henry afterguards granted a
special charter, conceding the benefit of the English
]aws — and, of course, the right of property — to five
Irish families. They were called, in pleading, persons
"of the five bloods " — de quinque sanguinihus.

"These were the O'Nials of Ulster, O'Melachlins
of Meath, the O'Connors of Connanght, the O'Briens
of Thomond, and the MacMurroughs of Leinster." —
Davieg Hist. llel. p. 45.

Henry 11. also granted a charter to the " Ostmen
or Esterlings," — that is, the Danes of Waterford, who
were inhabitants of that city long before his coming
to Ireland — "that they should have and enjoy in
Ireland the laws of England, and according to that
Jaw be judged and inherit." This appears from the
following passage in Davies^ page 80 : —

" Among the pleas of the Crown, 4 Edward IL, we
find a confirmation made by Edward I. of a charter
of denization, granted by Henry II. to certain Ostmen
or Esterlings, who were inhabitants of Waterford
long before Henry II. attempted the conquest of
Ireland :

" ' Edwardus Dei gratia, etc. Jnstitiario suo Hi-
berniae salutem : quia per inspectionem Chartte Dom.
llQn. Reg. filii Imperatricis quondam Dom. Hibernia3
proavi nostri nobis constat, quod Ostmanni de Water-
ford legem Anglicorum in Hibernia habere et secun-
dem ipsam legem judicari et deduci debent.' "

Nor was this a barren privilege. These Danes, by
that charter, obtained protection for their lives and
properties, which none of the Irish save the above-
named five families obtained. The Irish could not
sue as plaintiffs in any court of law. They were not
treated as conquered enemies, bound to accept the
laws of the conqueror, but entitled to the protection
of those laws. They were treated as perpetual ene-
mies, whom it w^s lawful to rob or kill, at the pleasure

46 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. I.

or caprice of an English subject. Let tlie Attorney-
General, Sir John Davies, speak. — Hist Tracts, p. 78.
" That the mere Irish were reputed aliens, appeareth
by sundry records, wherein judgments are demanded,
if they shall be answered in actions brought by them.
" In the Common Plea Rolls of ^ 28 Edward III.
(which are yet preserved in Bermingham's Tower),
this case is adjudged. Simon Neale brought an action
against William Newlagh, for breaking his close in
Clondalkin, in the county of Dublin : the defendant
doth plead that the plaintiff i^ ilibernicus et non de
quinque sanguinibus [' an Irishman, and not of the
five bloods'], and demandeth judgment, if he shall be
answered. The plaintiff replieth : that he is of the
five bloods — to wit, of the O'Neils of Ulster, who, by
the grant of the progenitors of our Lord the King,
ought to enjoy and use the English liberties, and
for freemen to be reputed in law.

" The defendant rejoineth : that the plaintiff is not
of the O'Neils of Ulster — nee de quinque sangui-
nibus [nor of the five bloods]. And thereupon tney
are at issue. Which being found for the plaintiff, he
had judgment to recover his damages against the
defendant.

" Again, in the 29 Edward I., before the Justices in
Oyer, at Drogheda, Thomas Le Bottelcr brought an
action of det6nue against Robert de Alinain, for cer-
tain goods. The defendant pleadeth : that he is not
bound to answer the plaintiff for this — that the plain^
tiff is an Irishman, and not of free blood.

"And the aforesaid Thomas says that he is an
Englishman, and this he prays may be inquired of by
the country. Therefore, let a jury come, and so forth :

''And the jurors, on their oath, say that the aforesaid
Thomas is an Englishman. Therefore it is adjudged
that he do receive his damages."

Thus these records demonstrate that the Irishman
had no |)rotection for his property ; because, if the
plaintiff, in either case, had been declared by the jury

CHAP. I.] PEOOFS, ETC. 47

to be an Irisliman, the a/^tioii vronld be barred,
though the injury was not denied upon the record to
have been committed. The validity of the plea in
point of law w^as also admitted ; so that, no matter
what injury might be committed upon the real or
personal property of an Irishman, the courts of law
afforded him no species of remedy.

But this absence of protection was not confined to
property ; the Irishman was equally unprotected in
his person and in his life. The following quotation
from Sir John Davies puts this beyond a doubt. —
Hist. Tracts, p. 82.

" The mere Irish were not only accounted aliens,
but enemies, and altogether out of the protection of
the law ; so as it was no capital offence to kill them :
and this is manifest by many records. At a jail de-
livery at Waterford, before John Wogan, Lord Justice
of Ireland, the 4th of Edward the Second, we find it
recorded among the pleas of the Crown of that year,
that Robert Wallace being arraigned of the death of
John, the son of Juor MacGillemory, by him felo-
niously slain, and so forth, came and well acknow-
ledged that he slew the aforesaid John, yet he said,
that by his slaying he could not commit felony, be-
cause he said that the aforesaid John was a mere
Irishman, and not of the five bloods, and so forth ;
and he furtlier said, that inasmuch as the lord of the
aforesaid John, whose Irishman the said John was,
on the day on which he was slain, had sought payment
for the aforesaid slaying of the aforesaid John as his
Irishman, he, the said Ilobert, was ready to answer
for such payment as was just in that behalf. And
thereupon a certain John Le Poer came, and for our
Lord the King said, that the aforesaid John, the son
of Juor MacGillemory, and his ancestors of that sur-
name, from the time in which our Lord Henry Fitz-
Empress, heretofore Lord of Ireland, the ancestor of
our Lord the now King, was in Ireland, the law of
England in Ireland thence to the present day, of right

48 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. I.

liad and oiiglit to have, and according to that law-
ought to be judged and to inherit. And so pleaded
the character of denization granted to the Ostmen
recited before ; all Mdiich appeareth at large in the
said record : wherein we may note, that the killing of
an Irishman was not punished by our law as man-
slaughter, which is felony and capital (for our law
did neither protect his life nor avenge his death), but
by a fine or pecuniary punishment, which is called
anericke, according to the Brehon or Irish law."

The following record speaks still more distinctly
the perfect right claimed and enjoyed by the English
in Ireland, of slaughtering with impunity the " mere
Irish." It records a case tried at Limerick, before the
same Lord Chief Justice Wogan, in the fourth year of
Edward the Second, and is as follows :

" William Fitz-Eoger, being arraigned for the death
of Roger de Cantelon, by him feloniously slain, comes
and says that he could not commit felony by means
of such killing ; because the aforesaid Roger was an
Irishman, and not of free blood. And he further says
that the said Roger was of the surname of O'Hederiscal,
and not of the surname of Cantelon ; and of this ho
puts himself on the country, and so forth. And the
jury upon their oath say, that the aforesaid Roger
was an Irishman of the surname of CHcderiscal, and
for an Irishman was reputed all his life ; and there-
fore the said William.as far as regards tlie aforesaid
felony, is acquitted. But inasmuch as the aforesaid
Roger O'Hederiscal was an Irishman of our Lord the
King, the aforesaid William was re-committed to jail,
until he shall find pledges to pay five marks to our
Lord the King, for the value of the aforesaid Irish-
man."

One more quotation from Sir John Davies will
place in the clearest light the spirit in which the Eng-
lish party governed Ireland, and the results of such
misgovernment. It will also serve to show that there
is nothing new under the sun ; as the pretence of the

CHAP. I.] PEOOFS, ETC. 49

modem faction tliat they are able to root out the
Irish, is but the repetition of the factious cry of
former days. The only difference is this : that in the
olden day it might have been realized ; at the pre-
sent, it is utterly impossible it should be successful.

The following quotation is from p. 85 of Davies^
Tracts :

" In all the Parliament Rolls which are extant, from
the fortieth year of Edward the Third, when the Sta-
tutes of Kilkenny were enacted, till the reign of King
Henry the Eighth, we find the degenerate and disobe-
dient English called rebels ; but the Irish which were
not in the King's peace, are called enemies. Statute
Kilkenny, c. 1, 10, and 11 ; 2 Henry the Fourth, c. 24 ;
10 Henry the Sixth, c. 1, 18 ; 18 Henry the Sixth,
c. 4, 5 ; Edward the Fourth, c. 6 ; 10 Henry the
Seventh, c. 17. All these statutes speak of English
rebels and Irish enemies ; as if the Irish had never
been in the condition of subjects, but always out of
the protection of the law, and were indeed in worse
case than aliens of any foreign realm that was in
amity with the Crown of England. For, by divers
heavy penal laws, the English were forbidden to
marry, to foster, to make gossips with the Irish, or to
have any trade or commerce in their markets or fairs ;
nay, there was a law made no longer since than the
twenty-eighth year of Henry the Eighth, that the
English should not marry Avith any person of Irish
blood, though he had gotten a charter of denization,
unless he had done both homage and fealty to the
King in the Chancery, and were also bound by recog-
nizance with sureties, to continue a loyal subject.
Whereby it is manifest, that such as had the govern-
ment of Ireland under the Crown of England, did
intend to make a perpetual separation and enmity
between the English and the Irish, pretending, no
doubt, that the English should in the end root out
the Irish ; which the English not being able to do,
caused a perpetual war between the nations, which

D

50 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. I.

continued fonr hundred and odd years, and would
have lasted to the world's end, if, in the end of Queen
Elizabeth's reign, the Irish had not been broken and
conquered by the sword, and since the beginning of
his Majesty's reign been protected and governed by
the law."

The compliment included in the last phrase to the
then reigning monarch, James I., was naturally enough
to be expected from Sir John Davies, who was his
Attorney-General ; but it will soon appear that the
law was scarcely less destructive than the sword, and
that the Irish had very little cause to rejoice at the
transition.

It is not, however, to be taken for granted that it
was the sword alone which had been used against
the Irish during the preceding reigns. The vexations
of law were superadded to the cruelty of open violence,-
and the statutes passed by the Parliament of the
English Pale, afforded specimens of the senseless, and
indeed ludicrous, malignity of the English party
against the Irish. I think it right to add the follow^
ing specimens : —

" 10th Henry the Sixth. This was an Act entitled,
An Act, that no person, liege or alien, shall take mer-
chandize or things to bo sold, to faire, market, or
other place, amongst the Irish enemies, &c. ; whereby
it was enacted, ' That no merchant, nor other person,
liege or alien, should use, in time of peace nor warre,
to any manner of faire, market, or other place amongst
the Irish enemies, vdih merchandize or things to be
sold, nor send them to them, if it were not to acquite
any prisoner of them that were the King's liege men ;
and if any liege man did the contraiy, he should be
holden and adjudged a felon, and that it should be
lawful for every liege man to arrest and take such
merchants and persons, with their merchandize and
things, and to send them to the next gaole, there to
remain until they should be delivered as law requireth,
and the King to have one halfe of the said goods,

CHAP. I.] PROOFS, ETC. 51

and he or thejr that should take them the other halfe*
— as by the said Act mnxe at large appeareth."

It is quite impossiUe in the annals of English his-
tory to meet such anolhei* specimen of legislation as
that wMcli made an English merchant a felon, for no
other crime than that of selling his goods at the best
profit he could get. There was, however, another
statute passed in the same 10th year of Henry VL,
which shows that there Avas to be no peace nor truce
with the Irish ; but that they Avere, in time of truce,
or even of peace, to be slaughtered, as enemies. It
was an Act intituled —

" An Act, that every liege man shall take the Irish
conversant as espialls amongst the English, and make
of them as of the King-'s enemies ; whereby it was
enacted, 'That it should be lawfull for every liege
man, to take all manner of Irish enemies, which in
time of peace ond truce should come and converse
amongst the English lieges, to spie their secresies,
force, v/ayes, and subtilties, and to make of them as
of the King's enemies.' "

It will be observed that these Acts of Parliament
were passed in the year 1432, that is, 260 years after
the English invasion of Ireland by Henry II. It
appears that the latter of these Acts was not considered
sufficiently sanguinary, for the same English party
passed another la^v in the year 1465, the fifth year of
Edward IV., intituled —

" An Act, that it shall be lawfull to kill any that is
found robbing by day or night, or going or coming to
rob'^or steal, having no faitlif nil man of good name or
fame in their company in English apparrel :"

Whereby it was enacted —

" That it shall be lawfull to aU manner of men that
find any theeves robbing by day or by night, or going
or coming to rob or steal, in or out, going or coming,
having no faithfull man of good name in their com-
pany in English apparrel, upon any of the liege people
of the King, that it shall be lawfull to take and kiU

62 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. I

those, and to cut off their heads, without any impeach-
ment of our Sovereign Lord the King, his heirs,
officers, or ministers, or of any others."

Thus, in truth, the only fact necessary to be ascer-
tained, to entitle an Englishman to cut off the head
of another man, was, that such other should be an
Irishman. For if the Irishman was not robbing, or
coming from robbing, who could say but that he
might be going to rob — "in or out," as the statute
has it 1 And the Englishman — the cutter-off of the
head — was made sole judge of where the Irishman was
going, and of what he intended to do. The followers
of Mahomet, with regard to their treatment of their
Grecian subjects, were angels of mercy when compared
with the English in Ireland. Care was also taken,
that no part of the effect of the law should be lost, by
the mistaken humanity of any individual Englishman;
for an additional stimulant was given by the following
section of the Act :

" And that it shall be lawful by authority of the
said Parliament, to the said bringer of the said head,
and his ayders to the same, for to destrain and levy by
their own hands, of every man having one plowland
in the barony where the said thief was so taken, two-
pence ; and every man having half a plowland in the
said barony, one penny ; and eveiy other man having
one house and goods to the value of fourty shillings,
one penny; and of every other cottier having house and
smoak, one half-penny."

After such statutes as these, it is matter of little sur-
prise that so late as the 28th year of the reign of
Henry VIII. — that is, in the year 1537 — an Act was
passed, intituled, " An Act against marrying, or fos-
tering with, or to, Irishmen." By this Act it was
prohibited, under the severest penalties, to marry an
Irishman ; but the legislature was not so ungallant
as to prohibit marriage with Irish women. That
would have been inflicting the severest possible pu-
nishment upon themselves; and considering the

CHAP. I.] PROOFS, ETC. 53

natural antipathy that the Enghsh in those days en-
tertained against everything Irish, it furnishes the
strongest xjroof that the Irish women at that time
afforded the same models of beauty and goodness for
which they are celebrated at the present day.

Even in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the spirit of
hatred and contempt of the Irish animated the legis-
lature. So late as the year 1569, an Act was passed
(in the 11th year of her reign), intituled, "An Act
prohibiting any Irish lord or captaine of this realms,
to foster to any of the lords of the same realme ;"
whereby it Avas enacted —

" That no lord nor captaine of the Irish of Ireland,
should from henceforth foster to any earl, viscount,
baron, or lord of the same realme ; and that what Irish
lord or captaine soever, that from henceforth should
receive or take to foster the child midier^ or bastard
of any of the said earls, viscounts, barons, or lords,
the same should be deemed and adjudged high-treason
in the taker, and also felony in the giver, according to
the taxation and discretion of the lord-deputie,
governour, or governours, and councell of this realme
for the time being."

Such were the laws made by the Parliament of the
English settlers in Ireland, in the spirit of contempt
and hatred of the Irish people. Yet the extent of
territory which belonged to the English was, during
all this time, extremely limited. How ignorant is
the present generation of the fact, that for centuries
England claimed the actual dominion of only twelve
of our counties ; and, even in these, the English laws
were only in force in the parts actually occupied by
men of English descent ! Upon this point the authority
of Davies is distinct and decisive. — Hist. Tracts, p. 93.

"True it is, that King John made twelve snires
in Leinster and Munster, namely, Dublin, Kildare,
Meath, Uriel, Catherlogh, Kilkenny, Wexford, Water-
ford, Cork, Limerick, Kerry, and Tipperary. Yet
these counties stretched no farther than the lands of

54 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. I.

the English colonies extended. In them only were
the English laws published and put in execution ; and
in them only did the itinerant judges make their cir-
cuits and visitations of justice, and not in the countries
possessed by the Irish, which contained two-thirds of the
kingdom at least ; and therefore King Edward the First,
before the court of Parliament was established in Ire-
land, did transmit the statutes of England in this form."

Davies then sets forth the ^vrit for the promulgation
of the statutes in Ireland : it is in Latin of course, and
is stated to be for the common utility of our people ;
but that promulgation is confirhed to "the several
places belonging to us in our land of Ireland." Davies
then proceeds thus : —

_ " By which writ, and by all the pipe-rolls of that
time, it is manifest that the laws of England were
published and put in execution only in the counties
which were then made and limited, and not in the
Irish countries, which were neglected and left wild."

It appears, however, that although there were
twelve counties thus nominally under English domi-
nion, yet, before the reign of Henry the Eighth, they
had shrunk into four ; at least, that in not more than
four were the English laws obeyed and executed. For
Davies, in speaking of the Acts called Poyning's Laws,
after alleging that they were intended for all Ireland,
is forced to confess that they were executed only
within a very limited portion of that countiy. His
words, at p. 177, are :

" And that the execution of all these laws had no
greater latitude than the Pale, is manifest by the sta-
tute of 13th Henry the Eighth, c. 3, which recites,
' that at that time the King's laws were obeyed and
executed in the four shires only ;' and yet the Earl of
Surrey was then Lieutenant of Ireland, a governor
much feared of the King's enemies, and exceedingly
honoured and beloved of the King's subjects. An '
the instructions given by the State of Ireland to John
Allen, Master of the Rolls, employed in England near

CHAP, l] proofs, etc. 55

about the same time, do declare as mucli ; wherein,
among other things, he is required to advertise the
King that his land of Ireland was so much decayed,
that the King-'s laws were not obeyed twenty miles in
jcompass. W^hereupon grew that byword used by the
Irish, viz., ' That they dwelt by west the law, which
dwelt beyond the river of the Barrow ;' which is within
thirty miles of Dublin. The same is testified by
Baron Fingias, in his discourse of the decay of Ire-
land, which he wrote about the twentieth year of King
Henry the Eighth."

It will be a matter of astonishment that the Eng-
lish dominion had shrunk into the narrow limits
of four counties, to any person acquainted with the
hideous system of daily recurring misrule and tyranny
which was constantly practised towards the Irish, as
well as towards the Vv^eaker portion of the English
Bettlers, by the more powerful of the English lords
and proprietors. These proprietors adopted and ex-
aggerated the most oppressive portions of the English
feudal system, and they added to that every injustice
committed by the more powerful upon the weak
amongst the natives. The foUoAving passage from
Davies (p. 131) will sliow what must have been the
effects of such accumulated oppressions ; especially as
they were practised vrith little intermission for move
than four centuries :

" The most wicked and mischievous custom of all,
was that of 'coin and livery,' which consisted in
taking of man's meat, horse meat, and money, of all
the inhabitants of the country, at the will and plea-
sure of the soldier ; who, as the phrase of the Scrip-
ture is, did eat iqo the peo'ple as it were bread ; for
that he had no other entertainment. This extortion
was originally Irish ; for they used to lay bonaght*
upon their people, and never gave their soldier any
other pay. But when the English had learnt it, they

* "Bonaght" was the Irish term for billeting of soldiers, 'With aright
to be maintained in food.

56 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. I.

used it with more insolence, and made it more in-
tolerable ; for this oppression was not temporary, nor
limited either to place or time ; but because there
was everywhere a continual war, either offensive or
defensive, and every lord of a country, and every
marcher, made war and peace at his pleasure, it be-
came universal and perpetual ; and indeed was the
most heavy oppression that ever was used in any
Christian or heathen kingdom. And, therefore, vox
oxjpressorum, this crying sin did draw down as great
or greater plagues upon Ireland, than the opx)ression
of the Israelites did draw upon the land of Egypt.
For the plagues of Egypt, though they were grievous,
were but of a short continuance ; but the plagues of
Ireland lasted four hundred years together."

The natural consequences followed ; they may as
well, and cannot be better described, than in the
words of Davies :

" This extortion of coin and livery produced two
notorious effects : first, it made the land waste ; next,
it made the people idle ; for when the husbandman
had laboured all the year, the soldier in one night
consumed the fruits of all his labour — longique perit
labor irritus anni. Had he reason then to manure
the land for the next year 1 Or rather, might he not
complain as the shepherd in Virgil :

*' ' Impius ha3C tam ciilta iiovalia miles habebit ?
Barbarus has segetes ? En quo discordia cives
Perduxit miseros ? En quels consevimus agroa ?'

And hereupon of necessity came depopulation,
banishment, and extirpation of the better sort of sub-
jects ; and such as remained became idle and lookers-
on, expecting the event of those miseries and evil
times : so as their extreme extortion and oppression
hath been the true cause of the idleness of this Irisli
nation ; and that rather the vulgar sort have chosen
to be beggars in foreign countries, than to manure
their fruitful land at home." (pp. 132, 133.)

CHAP. I.] PEOOFS, ETC. 57

The same result is produced by the oppression of
the present day. The Irish for four centuries suffered
the miseries of " coin and livery," as they now suffer
from tithes and absentee rents. They are still driven,
not as beggars, but as labourers, to foreign lands, and
to cultivate every soil but their own.

Thus, during four centuries, the property of the
Irish had no protection. An Irishman could not
maintain an action in the English courts of law, no
matter what injury might be done to his property.
An Irishman had no protection for his person or
his life. It was not, in point of law, a trespass, or
punishable as such in any action or civil suit, to beat,
or wound, or imprison. To murder him by the basest
mode of assassination was no felony nor crime in the
eye of the law. "We have seen witli what perfect im-
punity he could be and was plundered, under the
names of " coin and livery."

It might be supposed by some, that the Irish were
unwilling to receive the English laws, or to be received
into the condition of subjects. The Attorney-General,
Davies, however, tells us the contrary. At p. 87, he
puts the question thus : —

" But perhaps the Irish in former times did wilfully
refuse to be subject to the laws of England, and would
not be partakers of the benefit thereof, though the
Crown of England did desire it; and therefore they
were reputed aliens, outlaws, and enemies 1 Assuredly
the conti-ary doth appear."

And in page 101, he expressly declares —

" That for the space of two hundred years at least,
after the first arrival of Henry the Second in Ireland,
the Irish would have gladly embraced the laAvs of
England, and did earnestly desire the benefit and pro-
tection thereof ; which, being denied them, did of
necessity cause a continual bordering war between the
English and Irish."

It does, indeed, appear that the reason why that wise
monarch, King Edward III., did not extend the bene-

58 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. I.

fit of English protection and English law to the Irish
people, was, that the great lords of Ireland — the
Wicklows, the Stanleys, and the Rodens of the day —
certified to the King —

" That the Irish might not be naturalized without
being of damage or prejudice to them, the said lords,
or to the Crown."

This appears by a writ, directed by that monarch
to the Lord Justice of Ireland, commanding him to
consult and take the opinion of the great lords of
Ireland, with the return thereon, amon^^'st the roUs
in the Tower of London, quoted at length by Davies,
at p. 88.

I will refer, for the present, only to one passage
more in the Tracts of that Attorney-General, in fur-
ther illustration of the text of my first chapter. It is
to be found at page 90 : —

" This, then, I note as a great defect in the civil
policy of this kingdom ; in that, for the space of three
hundred and fifty years at least after the conquest
first attempted, the English laws were not communi-
cated to the Irish, nor the benefit and protection
thereof allowed unto them, though they earnestly
desired and sought the same : for as long as they
were out of the protection of the law, so as every
Englishman might oppress, spoil, and kill them with-
out control, how was it possible they should be other
than outlaws and enemies to the CroM^n of England 1
If the King would not admit them to the condition of
subjects, how could they learn to acknowledge and
obey him as their sovereign 1 When they migiit not
converse or commerce with any civil man, nor enter
into any town or city without peril of their lives ;
whither should they fly but into the woods and
mountains, and there live in a wild and barbarous
manner ]"

The passages which I have already quoted, show
that the Irish sought for, but could not obtain, any
species of legal protection. It would be too tedious

CHAP. I.] PEOOFS. ETC. 59

to enter into a detail of all tlie horrors inflicted upon
them by the lawless power and treachery of the Eng-
lish settlers. Notlving could be more common than
scenes of premeditated slaughter — massacres perpe-
trated under the guise of friendly intercourse, into
which the natives permitted themselves to be betrayed.
No faith was kept with the Irish : no treaty noi
agreement was observed any longer than it was the
interest of the English settlers to observe it, — or whilst
they were not strong enough to violate it with safetj'-.

It would be equally shocking and tedious to recite
all the well-attested acts of cruelty and perfidy which
were perpetrated on the Irish people by the order or
connivance of the English Government. There is in
the College of Dublin a State Paper of considerable
importance. It is a memorial presented by a Captain
Thomas Lee, drawn up with great care and with very
singular ability, written about the year 1594, and ad-
dressed to Queen Elizabeth, giving her a detailed
account of the real state of Ireland. It was a confi-
dential document, for the personal information of the
Queen. I shall have occasion to extract many pas-
sages of it. In the meantime, I will give, from othe?
authors, two or three instances only, of the horrible
cruelty exercised towards the Iiish by the English
governors.

My first quotation is from Leland's Hi story of Ire-
land, Book iv. He tells us, chap. 2, that when, in
the year 1579, the garrison of Smerwick, in Kerry,'
surrendered upon mercy to Lord Deputy Gray, he
ordered upwards of seven hundred of them to be put
to the sword or hanged.

" That mercy for which they sued was rigidly denied
them ; Wingfield was commissioned to disarm them ;
and when this service was performed, an English com-

Eany was sent into the fort and the garrison was
utchered in cold blood : nor is it without pain that
we find a service so horrid, so detestable, committed
to Sir Walter Raleigh/'

60 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. I.

It also appears that for this and such other exploits,
Sir Walter Kaleigh had 40,000 acres of land bestowed
upon him in the county of Cork, which he afterwards
sold to Richard, first Earl of Cork.

The next instance is almost contemporaneous. It
introduces another historic name. Shortly before the
same year, 1579 —

" Walter, Earl of Essex, on the conclusion of a
peace, invited Brian O'Nial of Claneboy, with a great
number of his relations, to an entertainment, where
they lived together in great harmony, making good
cheer for three days and nights ; when, on a sudden,
O'Nial was surprised with an arrest, together with
his brother and his wife, by the Earl's orders. His
friends were put to the sword before his face, nor
were the women and children spared. He was him-
self, with his brother and wife, sent to Dublin, where
they were cut in quarters. This increased the dis-
affection, and produced the detestation of all the
Irish : for this cliieftain of Claneboy was the senior
of his family, and as he had been universally
esteemed, so he was now as universally regretted." —
MS. Trinity College, Dublin.

The next instance I shall mention, occurred in the
year 1577. It is thus introduced by Morrison the
historian (foHo edition, p. 3) : —

"After the 19th year of Queen Elizabeth, videlicit,
anno 1577, the Lords of Connaught and O'Rorke,"
says Morrison, " made a composition for their lands
with Sir Nicholas Malby, governor of that province ;
wherein they were content to yield the Queen so large
a rent and such services, both of labourers to work
upon occasion of fortifying, and of horse and foot to
serve upon occasion of war, that their minds seemed
not yet to be alienated from their wonted awe and
reverence to the Crown of England. Yet, in the same
year, a horrible massacre was committed by the
English at Mulloghmaston on some hundreds of the
most peaceable of the Irish gentry, invited thither

CHAP. I.] PEOOFS, ETC. 61

on the public faith and under the protection of Govern-
ment."

The manner of this massacre appears to have been
this (the spot is now part of the King's County) : —

"The English published a proclamation, inviting
all the well-affected Irish to an interview on the Rath-
more, at MuUoghmaston, engaging at the same time
for their security, and that no evil was intended. In
consequence of this engagement, the well-aflfccted
came to Rathmore aforesaid ; and soon after they
were assembled, they found themselves surrounded
by three or four lines of English horse and foot com-
pletely accoutred, by whom they were ungenerously
attacked and cut to pieces ; and not a single man
escaped."* •

This seems to be one of the massacres particularly
alluded to by Captain Lee in his memorial. Speak-
ing of the treachery and cruelty of the English go-
vernors of Ireland, he says : —

" They have drawn unto them by protection, three

* There is the following more detailed account of this massacre in
the quarto edition of Leland's History, printed in Dublin by Marchbank
and Moncricffe, in 1773. Here are Leland's words : —

"The Irish MS. annals of this reign mention a verj' dishonourable trans-
action of this lord on his return to Ulster. It is here given in a literal
translation from the Irish, with which the author was favoured by
Jlr. O'Connor, anno 1745.

" ' A solemn peace and concord was made between the Earl of Essex
and Phelim O'Xiall, however, at a feast wherein the Earl entertained
that chieftain ; and at the end of their good cheer O'Niall and his wife
were seized ; their friends who attended were put to the sword before
their faces ; Phelim, together with his wife and brother, was conveyed
to Dublin, where they were cut up in quarters. This execution gave
universal discontent and horror.'

"In like manner, these annals assure ns, that a few years after, the
Irish chieftains of the King's and Queen's counties were invited by the
English to a treaty of accommodation ; but wlien they arrived at the
place of conference, they were instantly surrounded by troops, and all
butchered on the spot. Such relations would be the more surprising if
these annals, in general, expressed great virulence against the English
and their government ; but they do not appear to differ essentially from
the printed histories, except in the minuteness with w'"ch they "record
the local transactions and adventures of the Irish, and i'^^'^times they
expj-essly condemn their countrymen for their ' rebellions against their
prince.' "—Book iv., chap. 2, vol. ii., p. 237, (Note.)

62 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. I.

or four hundred of these country people, under colour
to do your Majesty's service, and brought them to a
place of meeting, where your garrison soldiers were
appointed to be, who have there most dishonourably
put them all to the sword ; and this hath been by the
consent and practice of the lord deputy for the time
being/'

Perhaps the instances of cruelty to individuals and
to private families are more heart-rending than the
wholesale massacres to which I have referred. The
following quotation is from Monison's History of
Ireland^ (foHo, p. 10) : —

"About the year 1590 died M'Mahon, chieftain of
Monaghan, who, in his lifetime, had surrendered his
country into her jMajestys hands, and received a re-
grant thereof under the broad seal of England, to him
and to his heirs male ; and in default of such, to his
brother Hugh Roe jNI'Mahon, with other remainders.
And this man djdng without issue male, his said
brother came up to the state, that he might be settled
in his inheritance, hoping that he might be counte-
nanced and cherished as her Majesty's patentee. But
he found, as the Irish say, he could not be admitted
until he promised six hundred cows ; for such, and
no other, were the Irish bribes. He was afterwards
imprisoned for failing in part of his payment • and in
a few days enlarged, with promise that tne lord
deputy himself would go and settle him in his county
of Monaghan ; whither his lordship took his journey
shortly after, with M'Mahon in his company. At
their first arrival the gentleman was clapt into bolts •
and in two days after Jie was indicted, arraigned, and
executed at his own door ; all done, as the Irish said,
by such officers as the lord deputy carried with him
for that purpose from Dublin. The treason for which
he was condemned was, because, two years before, he,
pretending a rent due under him out of Fearney,
levied forces and made a distress for the same, which,
by the English law, adds my author, may perhaps

CHAP. I.] PROOFS, ETC. 63

be treason ; but in that country, never before subject
to law, it was tliouglit no rare thing nor great oftence.
The marshal, Sir Henry Bagnal, had. part of the
country ; Captain Hensflower was made seneschal of
it, and had M'Mahon's chief house and part of the
land ; and to divers others, smaller portions of land
were assigned ; and the Irish spared not to say that
these men were all the contrivers of his death, and
that every one was paid something for his share."

Another instance I select from a multitude of simi-
lar cases mentioned by Lee in his memorial.

" The Irish who have once offended," says Lee, in
his memorial to Elizabeth "live they never so honestly
afterwards, if they grov/ into wealth, are sure to be
cut off by one indirect way or other."

Of this he gives the following melancholy instance :

"In one of her ^lajesty's civil shires, there lived
an Irishman peaceably and quietly as a good subject,
many years together, wherel)y he grew into great
wealth ; which his landlord thirsting after, and desi-
rous to remove him from his land, entered into prac-
tice with the sheriff of the shire to despatch this
simple man, and divide his goods between them.
Whereupon they sent one of his own servants for him,
and he coming with him, they presently took the man
and hanged him ; and, keeping the master prisoner,
they went immediately to his dwelling and shared
his substance, whicli was of great value, between them,
turning his wife and many children to begging. After
they had kept Inm (the master) fast for a season with
the sheriff, tliey carried him to the castle of Dublin,
where he lay bye the space of two or three terms ;
and he, having no matter objected against him where-
upon to be tried by law, they, by their credit and
countenance, being both English gentlemen, and he
who was the landlord the chiefest man in the shire,
informed the lord deputy so hardly of him, as that,
without indictment or trial, they executed him, to the
great scandal of her Majesty's state, and the impeach-

64 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. I.

ment of her laws. Yet this, and the like exemplary
justice," adds he, "is ministered to your Majestj'^s
poor subjects there."

Individual instances of this kind make oppression
more familiar to the human mind, and leave a stronger
impression on the recollection, from their individu-
ality. They also illustrate the working of the system.
They, in fact, bring it home more pointedly and dis-
tinctly to the eye of reason and common sense. But
we must not lose sight of the more general de-
scription of crimes perpetrated by the Government,
and with the sanction of the persons who from time
to time acted as the Sovereign's deputies at the head
of that Government.

Here is a passage of this description from the same
memorial : —

" There have also been divers others pardoned by
your Majesty, who have been held very dangerous
men, and after their pardon have lived very dutifully,
and done your Majesty great service ; yet upon small
suggestions to the lord deputy that they should be
spoilers of jour Majesty's subjects, notwithstanding
their pardon, there have been bonds demanded of
them for their appearance at the next sessions.
They, knowing themselves guiltless, have most will-
ingly entered into bonds, and appeared ; and there
(no matter being found to charge them) they have
been arraigned only for being in company with some
of your Majesty's servitors, at the killing of notorious
known traitors, and for that only have been con-
demned of treason, and lost their lives ! And this
dishonest practice hath been by the consent of your
deputies."

But it was not treachery alone, however hideous
and sanguinary, which formed, as it were, the princi-
pal ingredient'in the English Government of Ireland.
Direct assassination — wholesale assassination — was
another instrument of that Government ! In shorty
there were no crimes that man ever perpetrated

CHAP. I.] PROOFS, ETC. 65

against man, or that fiends of hell, in their satanic
malignity, ever invented, which were not actually
made portion of the familiar mode by which the
English managed the government of Ireland during
the period alluded to in the first chapter, and to
which these illustrations refer.

Let me give one specimen more, from the same
memorial of wholesale villany : —

"When there have been notable traitors in arms
against your Majesty, and sums of money oflfered for
their heads, yet could by no means be compassed,
they have in the end (of their own accord) made
means for their pardon, offering to do great service,
which they have accordindy performed, to the con-
tentment of the State, and thereby received pardon,
and have put in sureties for their good behaviour,
and to be answerable at all times at assizes and
sessions, when they should be called ; yet, notmth-
standing, there have been secret commissions given
for the murdering of these men " ! ! !

It is scarcely credible theso things should be done
by a Government calling itself Christian, and by a
people calling themselves Christians.

Yet, they are facts — recorded of an English
Protestant Government and people ; not by Catholic
or inimical writers, but by Protestant historians and
Protestant ofii-cers, high in command and authority
under the Protestant Crown of England : such docu-
ments being addressed in general to the Sovereign ;
and being, as to the statement of facts, of the most
unimpeachable authenticity.

Here is another specimen :

" When, upon the death of a great lord of a country,
there hath been another nominated, chosen, and
created, he hath been entertained with fair speeches,
taken down into his country, and for the offences of
other men indictments have been framed against him,
whereupon he hath been found guilty, and so lost his
life ; which hath bred such terror in other great lords

E

66 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. I.

of the like measure, as maketh them stand upon those
terms which they now do,"

Another specimen :

" A great part of that unqnietness of O'Donnell's
country, came by Sir Vv^illiam Fitzwilliams his placing
of one Willis there to be sheriff ; who had with him
three hundred of the veryrascals and scum, of that king-
dom, which did rob and spoil that people, ravish their
wives and daughters, and make havoc of all, which
bred such a discontentment, as that the Avhole country
was up in arms against them, so as if the Earl of
Tyrone had imt rescued and delivered him and them
out of the countiy, they had all been put to the
sword."

The savages of New Zealand never were, nor could
have been, guilty of such barbarities, as were the
monsters who administered the English Government
in Ireland. Here is another description of the state
of Ireland in the reign of Edward the Second. I
insert it to show that at the distance of centuries the
British policy in Ireland was the same. It is taken
from the History of Ireland written by a distin-
guished Protestant clergyman named Leland. These
are his words : —

" The oppression exercised with impunity in every
particular district ; the depredations everywhere com-
mitted among the inferior orders of the people, not
by open enemies alone, but by those who call them-
selves friends and protectors, and vvho justified their
outrages on the plea of lawful authority ; their avarice
and cruelty, their plundering and massacres, were
still more ruinous than the defeat of an army, or the
loss of a city ! The wretched sufferers had neither
power to repel, nor law to restrain or vindicate their
injuries. In times of general commotion, laws the
most wisely framed, and most equitably administered,
are but of little moment. But now the very source of
public justice was corrupted and poisoned." — Leland,
Book ii. chap. 3.

CHAP. I.] PROOFS, ETC. 67

In a previoas passage, Leland had given lis the real
cause why this horrible state of misgovernment was
continued; and we find the very same principle in
existence which actuates the conduct of the great
Orange leaders of the present day : —

"The true cause which for a long time fatally
opposed the gradual coalition of the Irish and Eng-
lish race under one form of government, was, that the
great English settlers found it more for their immediate
interest, that a free course should be left to their
oppressions ; that many of those whose lands they
coveted should be considered as aliens ; that they
should be furnished for their petty wars by arbitrary
exactions ; and, in their rapines and massacres, be
freed from the terrors of a rigidly impartial and
severe tribunal." — Leland, Book ii. chap. 1.

I give another passage from the same Protestant
clergyman, Leland ; because it describes^ the modus
agendi in the oppression of the Irish, by giying power
and authority to persons resident in Ireland, who
affected to be the only friends of the English interest.
It is just the story of the Orangeists of the present
day. Power was given, and the administration of
affairs committed, to the persons whose only attach-
ment to English connexion Avas, that it gave them
the means of committing crime with impunity.
These persons fabricated, outrages, or exaggerated
any crimes that might have been really committed.
They were accordingly entrusted with authority to
put down disturbances and preserve the peace. That
power they naturally, and, indeed, necessarily abused.
But I had better use the words of Leland himself : —

"Riot, rapine, and massacre, and all the tremen-
dous effects of anarchy, were the natural conse-
quences. Every inconsiderable party, who, under
pretence of loyalty, received the Kino-'s commission
to repel the adversary ih some particular district,
became pestilent enemies to the inhabitants. Their
properties, their lives, the chastity of their families

68 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. I.

were all exposed to barbarians, who sought only to
glut their brutal passions : and by their horrible
excesses, saith the annalist, purchased the curse of
God and man." — Lelancl, Book ii. chap. 3,

That these disorders and crimes were encouraged,
or at least not discountenanced, either in the words
or by the example of the English viceroys, is a
melancholy fact, that appears in every page of Irish
history. They could not, without arrant hypocrisy,
discourage in others that which they practised on a
larger scale themselves. The following is the general
account given of the Irish viceroys, by the same Pro-
testant historian whom I have so often quoted : —

" At a distance from the supreme seat of power, and
with the advantage of being able to make such re-
presentations of the state of Ireland as they pleased,
the English vicegerents acted with the less reserve.
They were generally tempted to undertake the conduct
of a disordered State, for the sake of private emolu-
ment, and their object was pursued without delicacy
or integrity ; sometimes with inhuman violence." —
Leland, Book iii. chap. 1.

Speaking of the departure of one of them, in the reign
of Henry the Sixth, Leland has a short passage, which,
with a small variation in phrase, might serve as the
general character of the English governors of Ire-
land : —

"Furnival (chief governor) departed with the
execration of all those, clergy and laity alike, whose
lands he had ravaged, whose castles he had seized,
whose fortunes had been impaired by his extortion
and exactions, or who had shared in the distress
arising from the debts he left undischarged." — Leland^
Book iii. chap. 1.

It will be perceived that the English governors be-
haved with the same impartial and indiscriminate
treachery and cruelty to the descendants of the Eng-
lish and to the native Irish themselves. Nothing
can exceed the baseness of the means which were

CHAP. I.] PROOFS, ETC. 69

unblushingly resorted to by the monster Government
of Ireland. I select as an instance, from Hollinshed's
Chronicles, the mode in which, in the reign of Henry
the Eighth, the insurrection of Lord Thomas Fitzgerald
was terminated. Perjury, murder, and blasphemy so
richly concur in capping the climax of atrocity and
baseness, that it may alone serve to demonstrate the
spirit in which Ireland was governed. The passage
from Hollinshed is this : —

" With Fitzgerald, Sir William Brereton skirmished
so fiercelie, as both the sides were rather for the great
slaughter disadvantaged, than either part by anie
great victory furthered. Master Brereton, therefore,
perceiving that rough nets were not the fittest to take
such peart birds, gave his advice to the lord deputie
to grow with Fitzgerald by faire means to some rea-
sonable composition. The deputie liking of the
motion, craved a parlie, sending certayne of the Eng-
lish as hostages to Thomas his campe, with a protec-
tion directed unto him, to come and go at will and
pleasure. Being upon this securitie in conference
with Lord Greie, he was persuaded to submit himselfe
unto the King his mercie, with the governour's faith-
full and undoubted promise that he should be par-
doned upon his repaire into England. And to the
end that no treachery might be misdeemed of either
side, they both received the sacrament openlie in the
campe, as an infallible seale of the covenants and
conditions of either part agreed ! Heerupon Thomas
Fitzgerald, sore against the willes of his councellors,
dismist his armie, and rode with the deputie to Dub-
lin, where he made short abode, when he sailed to
England with the favourable ]etters of the governour
and the councell. And as he Avould have taken his
journeie to Windsore where the Court laie, he was
intercepted contrarie to his expectation in London
waie, and conveied without halt into the towre ! and
before his imprisonment was bruited, letters were
posted into Ireland, streictlie commanding the deputie

70 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. I.

upon sight of tlieni, to apprehend Thomas Fitzgerald
his uncles, and to see them with all convenient speed
shipt into England, which the lord deputie did not
slacke. For, having feasted three of the gentlemen
at Kilmainan, immediately after their banket (as it
is nowe and then scene that sweet meate will have
sowre sauce), he caused them to be manacled, and led
as prisoners to the castell of Dublin ! and the oth«r
two were so roundlie snatcht up in villages hard
by, as they sooner felt their own captivitie, than
they had notice of their brethren's calamitie ! The
next wind that served into England, these five bre-
thren were embarked, to wit, James FitzgerakV,
Walter Fitzgerald, Oliver Fitzgerald, John Fitz-
gerald, and Eichard Fitzgerald. Three of these
gentlemen, James, Walter, and Eichard, were knowne
to have crossed their nephue Thomas to their power,
in his rebellion ; and therefore were not occasioned
to misdoubt anie danger ! But such as in those dales
were enemies to the house, incensed the King so sore
against it, persuading him that he should never con-
quer Ireland as long as anie Geraldine breathed in
the countrie : as for making the pathwaie smooth, he
was resolved to lop off as well the good and sound
grapes as the wild and f ruitlesse berries ; whereby ap-
peareth how dangerous it is to be a rub, when a king
is disposed to sweepe an alley." — Hollinshed, vi. 302.

" Thomas Fitzgerald, the 3rd of February, and these
five brethren his uncles, v^ere hanged, drawne, and
quartered at Tyburne, which was incontinently bruited
as well in England and Ireland as in foreign soiles."
Idem. 303. _

One incident during tlie war with Lord Thomas
Fitzgerald, is worth recording : —

" One hundred and forty of his (viz., Lord Thomas
Fitzgerald's) gallowglasses had the misfortune to be
intercepted and made prisoners ; and as intelligence
was received that the rebels advanced and prepared to
give battle, Skefiington (the governor), with a bar-

CHAP. I.] PROOFS, ETC. 71

barons precaution, ordered these wretches to be
slaughtered ; an order so eflectually executed, that
but one of all the number escaped the carnage." —
Leland, Book iii. chap. 6.

It should be kept in mind that, during the period
of four hundred years and upwards, the usual mode
of governing both English and Irish within the juris-
diction of the Anglican Government, was by martial
law ; which was treated as if it reaUy formed part of
the common law of Ireland. The abstract of a com-
mission to execute martial law, as given by HoUin-
shed, is worth recording : —

" The lord justice from Waterford, upon notice ol
the trouble dailie increasing, sent a commission of
the eleventh of Februarie, to Sir Warham Sentleger
to be provost marshall, authorising him to proceed
according to the course of marshaU law against all
offenders, as the nature of his or their offences did
merit and deserve ; so that the partie offender bee
not able to dispend fortie shillings by the yeare in
land or annuitie, or be not woorth ten pounds in
goods ; also that upon good cawses he male parlie
and talke with anie rebell, and grant liim a pro-
tection for ten dales : that he shall banish all idlers
and sturdy beggars : that he shall apprehend aiders
of outlav/s and thee\es, and execute all idle persons
taken by night ! that he shall give in the name and
names of such as shall refuse to aid and assist him :
that in doing of his service he shall take horse meat
and man's meat where he list, in anie man's house for
one night ; that everie gentleman and nobleman doo
deliver him a book of all the names of their servants -
and followers ; that he shall put in execution all
statutes against merchants and other penal laws, and
the same to see to be read and j)ublished in every
church by the parson and curate of the same : and
that he doo everie month certifie the lord justice how
many persons, and of their offences and qualities, that
he shall execute and put to death ! with sundrie other

72 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. I.

articles, which generallie are comprised in every com-
iiiission for the marshall law." — Hollinslicd, vi. 429.

This is given only as a specimen. It is mentioned
as a common practice, and is spoken of thus by one
of the chief governors. He talks, it will be seen, of
" giving this power to sundrie ;" so that he was not at
all scrupulous as to the persons to whom he com-
mitted it : —

" I also granted unto sundrie, power to execute the
martiall lawe, and left authoritie with Sir Edmond
Butler and Patrick Sherlock to levie and entertayne
men to prosecute the outlawes, and such as no man
would answere for. I have herde that since that tyme
some have been executed." — Sydney, i. 21.

That persons were executed by martial law in time
of profound peace is indisputable.

"The Lord Dillon affirmed that martial law had
been practised, and men hanged by it in times of
peace. — Nalson^ ii. 60.

I shall make one quotation more to establish the
fact that it was considered in Ireland that the officers
of the Crown could supersede the common law,
whenever they pleased, by substituting trial by court
martial.

" Martial law is so frequent and ordinary in Ireland,
that it is not to be denied ; and so little offensive
there, that the common law takes no exception at
it" ! ! \—Rushworth, viii. 198.

The manner in which the execution of the martial
law worked, we can discover from the foUomng
instance, which I find in Cox's History of Ireland : —
* " The Earl of Ormond's officers made a complaint
against Lovell, Sheriff of the county of Kilkenny,
that he had executed martial law on several felons
that had lands and goods, which would be forfeited to
the Earl by their attainders, and that the Sherifl' took
those lands and goods to his own use." — Cox, 395.

The result of all these grievances and oppressions
was the almost total secession from Enghsh power,

CHAP. I.] PROOFS, ETC. 73

even of the parts of Ireland that had been overrun by
the English and submitted to English authority.

There has been lately published a document, from
which a few extracts will give a thorough insight into
the real state of Ireland so late as the reign of Henry
the Eighth. The document I allude to is to be found
in the 2nd volume of the State Papers, lately pub-
lished under the authority of a commission from the
Crown, containing State papei'S of the reign of Henry
VIII. ; and appears to have been a representation
made to that monarch of the state of Ireland, and a
plan for its reformation. It shows that there were no
less than eight counties, which, though shire land,
yet did not recognize the authority of England : and
five other counties, one-half of each of which equally
disclaimed the English authority; including in these
counties, even the county of Dublin itself. There
were, besides, no less than sixty districts, called " re-
gions," wliich were altogether under the dominion
and authority of Irish chieftains ; and, what will seem
still more surprising to those who are unacquainted
with the history of Ireland, there were no less than
thirty other " regions," or districts, under the sway
and authority of chieftains ot pure English descent,
but who did not acknowledge or submit to the autho-
rity of the English Government. It is better to give
the very words of the document ; and first, as relates
to the Irish "regions," we find the following pas-
sage : —

" And fyrst of all, to make his Grace understande
that there byn more than 60 countrys, called regyons,
in Ireland, inhabyted with the King's Irish enemies :
some region as big as a shire, some more, some less
unto a little ; some as big as half a shire, and some a
little less ; where reigneth more than 60 chief captains,
whereof some calleth themselves kings, some king'^
peers in their language, some princes, some dukes,
some archdukes, that liveth only by the sworde, and
obeyeth to no other temporal person, but only to him-

74 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. I.

self that is strong : and every of the said captains
maketh war and peace for himself, and holdeth by
sworde, and hath imperial jurisdiction within his
rome, and obeyeth to no other person English or Irish,
except only to such persons as may subdue him by
the sworde."

Next, with regard to the English chieftains^ there
is this passage : —

"Also, there is more than 30 great captains of
the English noble folk, that followeth the same Irish
order, and keepeth the same rule, and every of them
maketh war and peace for himself without any licence
of the King, or of any other temporal person, save to
him that is strongest, and of such that may subdue
them by the sworde."

Next, as to the counties that had thrown off the
English authority, we have this passage : —

"Here followeth the names of the counties that
obey not the King's laws, and have neither justice,
neither sheriffs, under the King :—
County of Waterfford. County of Carlagh.f
County of Corke. County of Uryell. J

County of Kilkenny. County of Meathe.^

County of Lymeryk. Halfe the county of Dublin.

County of Kerry. Halfe the county of Kildare.

County of Conaught. Halfe the county of Wex-

County of Wolster.'^" ford.

" All the English f olke of the said counties be of
Irish habit, of Irish language, and Irish conditions,
except the cities and the walled towns."

It will be observed that the entire of Connaught
was considered at that time as but one county, though
it now contains several ; and the entire of Ulster was
named but as one county, though it has now many.
From the next passage we see what a miserably
stnall portion of Ireland acknowledged the authority
of the English monarch : —

* /.e., Ulster. f Carlow. t ^lonaghan. § Westmeath.

PKOOFS, ETC. 75

" Here foUoweth the names of the counties subject
unto the King's laws : —

Halfe the county of Uryell,"^ by estimation,
Halfe the county of Meath.f
Halfe the county. of Dublin.
Halfe the county of Kildare.
Halfe the county of Wexford.

" All the common people of the said halfe counties,
that obeyeth the King's laws, for the more part be ol
Irish birth, of Irish habit, and of Irish language."

It will be seen from another extract how completely
the independence of the Irish chieftains was recog-
nized by all the English constituted authorities, such
as they were : — '

" Here followeth the names of the English counties
that bear tribute to the wylde Irish : —

'• The barony of Lecchahill in the county of Wolster,
to the captain of Clanhuboy, payetli yearly £40 • or
else to Oneyll, whether of them be strongest. The
county of Uryell payeth yearly to the great Oneyll,
£40. The county of Meatlie payeth yearly to O'Conor,
.£300. The county of Kyldare payeth yearly to the
said O'Conor, £20. The King's Exchequer payeth
yearly to M'Morough, 80 marks. The county of
Wexford payetli yearly to ISI'Morough and to Arte
Oboy, £40. The county of Kilkenny and the county
of Tipperary pay yearly to O'Carroll, £40. The
county of Limerick payeth yearly to O'Brien Arraghe,
in English money, £40. The same county of Limerick
payetli yearly to the great O'Brien, in English money,
£40. The county of Cork to Corniac iNl'Teyge ])ayeth
yearly in English money, £40. Sunima, £740.'^

The following passage is very characteristic : —

" Also there is no folke daily subject to the King's
lawes, but half the county of Uryell, half the county
of Meath, half the county of Dublin, half the county
of Kildare ; and thcrj be as many justices of the

* Louth. t riie preseiit county of ikath.

76 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. I.

King's Bench and of the Common Pleas, and as many-
barons of the Exchequer, and as many officers, minis-
ters, and clerks in every of the said countyes, as ever
there was, when all the lande for the more parte was
subject to the lawe." (p. 9.)

It will thus be seen that the spirit of jobbing was
as vivacious in Ireland in the reign of Henry the
Eighth, as it is at the present moment.

The document from which I have taken these ex-
tracts, contains a plan for reforming the abuses of the
system of government in Ireland, which appears to
have been dictated by a very impartial spirit. It is
altogether a very curious document. The reader will
perhaps smile at such a passage as this : —

" Also it is a proverbe of olde date, ' The pride of
Fraunce, the treason of Inglande, and the warre of
Irelande, shall never have ende.' "Which proverbe,
touching the warre of Irelande, is like alwaie to con-
tinue, "vvdthout God sette in men's breasts to hnd some
new remedy that never was found before."

The reduction of Ireland to a civil state, was the
object of the writer of the document in question : and
the quaint manner in which he concludes his argu-
ment in favour of the adoption of his plans for the
conciliation of Ireland, runs thus : —

" The prophecy is, that the King of Tngland shall
put this land in such order, that all the warres of the
liinde, whereof groweth all the vices of the same, shall
cease for ever ; and, after that, God shall give suche
grace and fortune to the same King, that he shaU,
with the army of Ingiand and of Ireland, subdue
the realme of Fraunce to his obeisance for ever, and
shaU rescue the Greeks, and recover the gi-eat city of
Constantinople, and shall -s^anquish the Turkes, and
win the Holy Crosse, and the Holy Lande, and shall
die Emperor of Rome, and eternaU blisse shall be his
ende." (p. 31.)

How expressive of the impolicy of misgoverning
Ireland, is the concluding paragraph of the paper iu
question ! The writer says :—

CHAP. I.] PROOFS, ETC. 77

" That if this lande were put once in order as afore-
sayd, it would be none other but a very paradise,
delicious of all pleasaunce, to respect and regard of
any other lande in this worlde ; inasmuch as there
never was straunger ne alien person, greate or small,
that would avoyde therefro by his will, notmthstand-
ing the said misorder, if he might the meanes to dwell
therein, his honesty saved ; much more would be liis
desire if the land were once put in order." (p. 31.)

I have dwelt the more at length upon the State
Paper from which I have taken the foregoing extracts,
because it serves to show the real cause why the Eng-
lish Government continued to hold the possession of
any part of Ireland. It has often been asked, why
the Irish, who deprived the English Government of
so much of the island, and reduced them within such
narrow limits, did not totally expel that Government,
and establish one of their own 1 This document at
once clearly shows the causes that prevented such a
desirable result. It shows that the Irish had no point
of union or centralization ; that they were totally
divided among themselves — the enemies of one an-
other. The same cause that, in a more mitigated
form, now prevents Ireland from being a nation, did
at that time preclude, in a more rude and savage
manner, the establishment of nationality. The Irish
chieftains had the power, and seldom wanted either
the inclination or the incitement, to make war upon
each other. Mutual injuries, reciprocal devastations,
created and continued strife and hate amongst them.
The worst elements of continued dissension subsisted.
When, upon particular occasions, some universal or
general oppression made them combine, their confe-
deracy was but of short duration, ^^^len the English
party was strong, it endeavoured by force to put down
such confederacy. But the forcible attempts were in
general successfully resisted by the Irish, who gained
the futile glory of many a victory over some of the
most accomplished commandc'^s of the English forces.

78 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. I.

But these defeats taught the English officers that
cunning which is called political wisdom. They
assailed the avarice or fomented the resentments of
particular chieftains, and succeeded in detaching
them from the general cause. These chieftains
betrayed their companions in arms ; joined? their
forces with those of the English ; and participated in
the councils, and united with the force, which by
degrees broke down the power of the other chieftains.
But the traitors obtained no permanent profit ; and
no length of fidelity to the English commanders
secured them the confidence or the kindness of their
unprincipled seducers.

There is a remarkable instance of this, recorded as
having occurred after a battle fought at Knocktow.^
in Connaught, in the reign of Henry the Seventh ;
in which the Irish were totally defeated by the com-
bined army of English and of royalist Irish, who
aided them, under the command of Lord Gormanstown.
I take the following quotation from Leland (vol. 2,
p. 120) :—

" Immediately after the victory of Knocktow, Lord
Gormanstown turned to the Earl of Kildare, in the
utmost insolence of success : ' We have slaughtered
our enemies,' said he ; ' but to complete the good
deed we must proceed yet further — cut the throats of
those Irish of our own party.' "

I shall now proceed with extracts of equal authority
and authenticity, showing the mode in which English
authority in the reign of Queen Elizabeth became
predominant. What arms were unable to achieve,
was brought about by the most horrible and perse-
vering cruelties. The Irish, who could not be subdued
by force, were compelled to yield to famine. The
harvests were destroyed year after yoar ; the cattle
were taken away and slaughtered ; provisions of every
kind were destroyed ; the country was devastated —
the population perished for want of food ; famine and
pestilence were the irresistible arms used by England
to obtain the dominion.

CHAP. I.] PROOFS, ETC. 79

It is horrible to tliink that this mode of subjuga-
tion was suggested in detail by the poet Spenser— a
man who, though affected by the quaintness of his
time, was endoAved with the most poetic genius ; but
his imagination, which might have been inflamed by
fictitious woe, exhausted itself in devising real horrors
for Ireland. He had Ms plan for the pacification of
Ireland. It was no other than that of creating famine
and ensuring pestilence ; and he encouraged the
repetition of these diabolical means by his own evi-
dence of their efhcacy. He recommended, indeed,
that tAA'enty days should be given to the Irish to come
in and submit ; after the expiration of which time
they were to be shown no mercy. But let me quote
his own words : —

" The end will (I assure mee) bee very short, and
much sooner than it can be in so greate a trouble,
as it seemeth, hoped for : altho' there should none of
them fall by the sword, nor be slaine by the soldiour ;
yet thus being kept from manurance, and their cattle
from running abroad, by this hard restraint they would
quietly consume themselves, and devour one another !"
— Spenser's Ireleincl, p. 165.

These counsels of 8penscr were carried into effect.
The war with Desmond, who was in fact forced into
rebellion — that is, into a contest with the Queen — af-
forded the pretext and opportunity for exercising these
cruelties. Take these specimens from Hollinshed,
who thus describes the progress of the English army
through the country : —

" As they went, they drove the whole country before
them into the Ventrie, and by that means they preyed
and took all the cattle in the country, to the number
of eight thousand kine, besides horses, garrons, sheep,
and goats ; and all such people as they met, they did
without mercy put to the sword ; by these means, the
whole country having no cattle nor kine left, they
were driven to such extremities, that for want of
victuals they were either to die and perish for famine
or to die under the sword." — M<9Uinshed, vi. 427.

80 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. I.

" The soldiers, likewise, in the camp, were so hot
upon the spur, and so eager upon the vile rebels, that
that day they spared neither man, woman, nor child,
but all was committed to the sword." — Hollinshed^ vL
430.

I give the next quotation to show how trivial it was
considered to slaughter four hundred unarmed people
in a single day. It was thought an insufficient day's
service : — ■

" The next claie following being the twelfe of March,
the Lord Justice and the Earle divided their armie
into two severall companies by two ensigns and three
together, the Lord Justice taking the orre side, and the
other taking the side of Sleughlogher, and so they
searched the woods, burned the towne, and killed that
dale about foure hundred men, and returned the
same night with all the cattel which they found that
day. And the said lords, being not satisfied with their
dale's service, they did likewise the next dale divide
themselves, spoiled and consumed the Avhole countrie
until it was night." — Hollinshed., vi. 430.

This is but a specimen of the mode in which the war
was carried on. I give a few more instances, and I
could multiply them by hundreds : —

" They passed over the same into Conilo, where the
Lord Justice and the Earl of Ormond divided their
companies, and, as they marched, they burned and
destroyed the country." — Hollinshed, vi. 430.

" He divided his companies into foure parts, and
they entred into foure severall places of the wood at
one instant ; and by that means they scoured the wood
throughout, in killing as mannie as they tooke, but the
residue fled into the mountains." — Hollinshed,, vi. 452.

" There were some of the Irish taken prisoners, that
offered great ransomes ; but presently upon their
bringing to the campe, they were hanged." — Pacata
Hibeniia, 421.

It will be seen that the troops were thus employed,
not in attacking any armed or resisting enemy, for

CHAP, l] proofs, etc. 81

there was none ; but in killin.i;^ unarmed men and
destroying provisions. Tlie Queen's army was in
Munster ; and here are some specimens of the way in
which they were working out Spenser's plan : —

" By reason of the continuall persecuting of the
rebells, who could have no breath nor rest to releeve
themselves, but were alwaies by one garrison or other
hurt and pursued ; and by reason the harvest was
taken from them, their cattells in great numbers preied
from them, and the whole countrie spoiled and preied :
the poore people, Avho lived onlie upon their labors,
and fed by their milch cowes, were so distressed that
they would follow after the goods which were taken
from them, and offer themselves, their mves and
children, rather to be slaine by the armie, than to suffer
the famine wherewith they were now pinched." —
IloUinshed, vi. 33. Also Leland, Book iv. chap. 2.

Again, take the following from Sir George Carew :
" The President having received certaine information,
that the INIounster fugitives were harboured in those
parts, having before burned all the houses and corne,
and taken great preyes inOwny Onubrian andKilquig,
a strong and fast countrey, not farre from Limerick,
diverted his forces into East Clanwilliamand Muskery-
quirke, where Pierce Lacy had lately beene succoured ;
and harassing the country, killed all mankind that
were found therein, for a terrour to those as should
give releef e to runagate traitors. Thence wee came into
Arleaghe woods, where wee did the like, not leaving
behind us man or beast, corne or cattle, except such as
had been convoyed into castles." — Pacata Hibernia,
180.

" They wasted and forraged the country, so as in a
small time it was not able to give the rebells any
reliefe ; having spoiled and brought into their garrisons
the most part of their corne, being newly reaped." —
Facata Hibernia, 584.

" Hereupon Sir Charles, with the English regiments,
overran all Beare and Bantry, destroying all that they

F

82 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. I.

could find meet for the reliefe of men. so as that
country was wholly wasted." — Pacata Hibernia^
659.

But it was not in Munster only that the horrors of
this system were practised. I may observe that it
was in the reign of Elizabeth that the general practice
commenced of calling the Irish rebels instead of
enemies, the reason of which is sufficiently obvious.
For it was under the name of rebels that the people,
who for the greater part were living in peaceable sub-
mission to Enghsh authority, were deprived of the
produce of their harvests and consumed by famine.
The following extracts v/ill show how this system was
acted upon in Leinster and in part of Ulster. I quote
from Leland : —

" The Leinster rebels, by driving the royalists into
their fortified towns, and living long without mo-
lestation, had cultvated their lands, and established
an unusual regularity and plenty in their districts.
But now they were exposed to the most rueful havoc
from the Queen's forces. The soldiers, encouraged by
the example of their officers, everywhere cut down the
standing corn with their swords, and devised every
means to deprive the wretched inhabitants of all the
necessaries of life ! ! Famine was judged the speedi-
est and most effectual means of reducing them : and
therefore the deputy was secretly not displeased Avith
the devastations made even in the well-affected
quarters by the improvident fury of the rebels.

" The like melancholy expedient was practised in
the northern provinces. The governor of Carrick-
fergus. Sir Arthur Chichester, issued from his quarters,
and, for twenty miles round, reduced the country to a
desert. Sir Samuel Bagnal, the governor of Newry,
proceeded with the same severity, and laid Avaste all
the adjacent lands. All the English garrisons were
daily employed in pillaging and wasting ; while
Tyrone, with his dispirited party, shrunk gradually
witVin narrower bounds. They were effectually pre-

CHAP, l] proofs, etc. 83

vented from sowing and cultivating their lands." —
Leland, Book iv. ch. 5.

To give some variety to these horrors, I will quote
an incident that occurred in the year 1574— 2:)o?r/-
varier les agremens, as the French would say.

'■' — 'Anno 1574. A solemn x^eace and concord was
made between the Earl of Essex and Felim O'Nial.
However, at a feast wherein the Earl entertained that
chieftain, and at the end of their good cheer, O'Nial
and his wife were seized, and their friends who
attended were put to the sword before their faces.
Felim, together with his wife and brother, were con-
veyed to Dublin, where they were cut up in quarters.'
This execution gave universal discontent and horror.
In like manner, a few years after, the Irish chieftains
of the King's and Queen's counties were invited by
the English to a treaty of accommodation. But when
they arrived at the place of conference, they were in-
stantly surrounded by troops, and all butchered on
the spot." — Leland, Book iv. ch. 2 (note).

As these individual instances of cruelty and treachery
give a more vivid interest to the general tale of all
species of atrocious crimes, I will just give one ex-
ample more of individual depravity, in no less a
person than the Lord President of Munster. It is, in
truth, a fact of a family — being part of the general
system.

" Carew still descended to more dishonourable prac-
tices. One Nugent, a servant of Sir Thomas Norris,
had deserted to the rebels, and, by the alacrity of his
services, he acquired their confidence. In a repenting
jnood he submitted to the President (Carew) ; and
to purchase his pardon, promised to destroy either
the titular earl* or his brother John. As a plot was
already laid against the former, and as his death
could only serve to raise up new competitors for his
title, the bravo was directed to proceed against John.

* Viz., the Earl of Desmond.

84 OBSERVATIONS. [CHAP. 1.

He seized his opportunity, and attempted to- despatch
him ; but as his pistol was just levelled, he was seized,
condemned to die, and at his execution confessed his
design : declaring that many others had sworn to the
Lord President to effect what he intended." — Leland,
Book iv. ch. 5.

Carew's description of the policy adopted in his
own day, might serve for a much later period : —

'"It was thought no ill policy to make the Irish
draw blood upon one- another, whereby their private
quarrels might advance the public service." — Pacata
Hihernia, 650.

I now come back to the systematic plan of destroy-
ing property, especially the harvests. We find the
folloAving incidental notices among the repetitions of
more detailed destruction : —

A.D. 1600. "On the 12th of August, Mountjoy,
with 560 foot and 60 horse, and some volunteers,
marcht to Naas, and thence to Philipstown, and in
his way tooke 200 cows, 700 garrons, and 500 sheep,
and so burning the country." — Cox, 428.

1600. " Sir Arthur Savage, governor of Connagh,
designed to meet the Lord Lieutenant, but could not
accomplish it, though he preyed and spoil'd the coun-
try as far as he came." — Cox, 428.

1600. " Mountjoy staid in this country till the 23rd
of August, and destroyed £10,000 worth of corn, and
slew more or less of the rebels every day. One
Lenagh, a notorious rebel, was taken and hanged,
and a prey of 1000 cows, 500 garrons, and many sheep,
was taken by Sir Oliver Lambert in Daniel Spany's
countrey, with the slaughter of a great many rebels."
—Cox, 428.

1600. "About the 18th December, Sir Francis
Barkley having notice that many rebels were relieved
in Clanawley, marcht thither, and got a prey of 1000
cows, 200 garrons, many sheep, and other booty, and
had the killing of many tray tors." — Cox, 434.
" The next morning being the fourth of January,

CHAP. I.] PEOOFS, ETC. 85

1602, Sir Charles Wilmot coining to seeke the enemy
in their campe, hee entered into their quarter without
resistance, where hee found nothing but hurt and
sicke men, whose pains and lives by the soldiers were
both determined.' — Pacata Hihernia, 659.

" Greate were the services these garrisons perform-
ed ; for Sir Richard Pearce and Captain George
Flower, with their troopes, left neither corne nor
home, nor house unburnt between Kinsale and Ross.
Captain Roger Harvie, who had with him his brother,
Captain Gawen Harvie, Captain Francis Slingsby,
Captain William Stafford, and also the companies of
the Lord Barry and the treasurer, with the President's
horse, did the like between Ross and Bantry."— Pacata
Hibernia^ 645.

The result of all these proceedings is described by
so many of the English historians, in terms of such
complicated horror, that volumes might be filled with
the particular instances of cruelty and barbarity. I
give these quotations : —

" Repeated complaints were made of the inhuman
rigour practised by Grey (the Deputy) and his
officers. The Queen was assured that he tyrannized
with such barbarity, that little was left in Ireland for
her Majesty to reign over, but ashes and carcasses !"
Leland, Book iv. chap. 2.

"The southern province seemed to be totally de-
populated, and, except within the cities, exhibited an
hideous scene of famine and desolation. — Leland^
Book iv. chap. 3.

It might be supposed that the progress of destruc-
tion would now have been arrested ; that enough in
the demoniacal labour of massacre and spoliation had
been done ; and that the kingdom might have at
last been permitted to enjoy some respite from the
atrocities of fiends in human form. But this was
forbidden by the active anti-Irish spirit — the national
antipathy to, and jealousy of, this country ; which
spirit then, as well as now, exercised its evil and

86 OBSEEVATIONS, [CHAP. I.

malignant influences on our destiny. We have seen
already, that where the Irish had driven the royalists
into their fortified towns, and freed themselves from
English molestation, " they had cultivated their lands,
and established an unusual regularity and plenty in
their districts." — Leland, Book iv. chap. 5. But
Irish peace, plenty, and prosperity formed no part of
English policy. It appears from Leland that the
oppression and plunder of Ireland, the butchery of
her inhabitants, and the perpetuation of social discord,
were regularly systematized, reasoned on, and, despite
some opposition, adopted and established as a mea-
sure of State policy. Here are Leland's words : —

" Some of her (Elizabeth's) counsellors, appear
to have conceived an odious jealousy which reconciled
them to the distractions and miseries of Ireland.

" ' Should we exert ourselves,' said they, ' in re-
ducing this country to order and civility, it must
soon acquire power, consequence, 3.nd riches. The
inhabitants mil thus be alienated from England ;
they will cast themselves into the arms of some
foreign power, or perhaps erect themselves into an
independent and separate State. Let us rather con-
nive at their disorders ; for a weak and disordered
people never can attempt to detach themselves from
the Crown of England.' We find Sir Henry Sydney
and Sir John Perrot, who perfectly understood the
ajffairs of Ireland, and the dispositions of its inhabi-
tants, both expressing the utmost indignation at this
horrid policy, which yet had found its way into the
EngUsh Parliament." — Leland, Book iv. chap. 3.

This policy was incessantly and vigorously acted
upon. The "disorders" were perpetuated. There
was no pause. The efficient manner in which the
army performed the service of destruction, was boasted
of by many of the English historians. Let an}
man who chooses read in cold blood the following
extract : —

"They performed that serYic3 effectually, and

CHAP. I.] PROOFS, ETC. 87

brought the rebels to so low a condition, that they
saw three children eating the entrails of their dead
mother, upon whose flesh they had fed many days,
and roasted it by a slow fire." — Cox^ 449.

Nor did the entire conquest and death of Desmond,
and the total suppression of any resistance, satiate the
English commanders or their soldiers. Let the fol-
lowing description of their conduct, by a contempo-
rary historian, suffice for our present purposes : —

" After Desmond's death, and the entire suppression
of his rebellion, unheard-of cruelties were committed
on the provincials of INIunster (Ms supposed former
adherents) by the English commanders. Great com-
panies of these provincials, men, women, and children,
were often forced into castles and other houses, which
were then set on fire ; and if any of them attempted
to escape from the flames, they were shot or stabbed
by the soldiers who guarded them. It was a diversion
to these monsters of men to take up infants on the
point of their spears, and whirl them about in their
agony ; apologizing for their cruelty by saying, that
' if they suffered them to live to grow up, they would
become popish rebels.' Many of their women were
found hanging on trees, with their children at their
breasts, strangled with the mother's hair." — Lombard.
Comment, de Hibern. p. 535 ; apud Curry, Hist.
Review, p. 27 (note).

All the Irish, and persons of the English race who
had resisted the Queen's authority, having been de-
stroyed by the sword or famine, the subjugation of the
country became complete. There is in HoUinshed's
Chronicle a quaintness of expression that gives an
additional interest to the details he has preserved ;
but they have, from their own nature, a deeper interest
still. If these details had been given of cruelties
towards wretched and infidel barbarians in the re-
motest extremity of the globe, they would excite great
compassion and heartfelt commiseration in any
human being. But let it be recollected that these are

88 OBSERVATlOKS, [cHAP. I.

authentic and unimpeachable narratives of crimes
which Christian Englishmen committed upon Chris-
tian Irish. The historians who have recorded these
facts, had every motive to palliate, and none to ex-
aggerate, the English barbarity and cruelty. Yet the
wildest flights of imagination could scarcely suppose
anything in fiction equal to the horrors of the reality.
The following passage describes the closing scene of
the conquest of the southern provinces of Ireland : —
" And as for the great companies of souldiers, gal-
lowglasses, kerne, and the common people who followed
this rebellion, the numbers of them are infinite whose
bloods the earth drank up, and whose carcasses the
beasts of the field and the ravening fowls of the air did
consume and devoure. After this followed an extream
famine ; and such whom the sword did not destroy,
the same did consume and eat out ; very few or none
remaining alive excepting such as were fled over
into England ; and yet the store in the towns was
far spent and they in distress, albeit nothing like in
comparison to them who lived at large ; for they were
not onlie driven to eat horses, dogs, and dead carrions,
but also did devour the carcases of dead men, whereof
there be sundrie examples ; namely, one in the county of
Cork, where, when a malefactor was executed to death,
and his body left upon the gallows, certain poor people
did secretly come, took him down, and did eat him ;
likewise in the bay of Smeerweeke, or St. Marieweeke,
the place which was first seasoned with this rebellion,
there happened to be a ship to be there lost through
foul weather, and all the men being drowned, were
there cast on land. The common people, who had a
long time lived on limpets, orewads, and such shell-
fish as they could find, and which were now spent, as
soon as they saw these bodies, they took them up, and
most greedily did eat and devoure them ; and not long
after, death and famine did eat and consume them.
The land itself, which before those wars was populous,
well-inhabited, and rich in all the good blessings of

CHAP. I.] PROOFS, ETC. 89

God, being plenteous of corne, full of cattel, well
stored with fish and sundrie other good commodities,
is now become waste and barren, yielding no fruits,
the pastures no cattel, the aire no birds ; the seas
(though full of fish), yet to them yielding nothing.
Finally, every waie the curse of God was so great, and
the land so barren both of man and beast, that who-
soever did travell from the one end to the other of all
Munster, even from Waterford to the head of Smeer-
weeke, which is about six score miles, he would not
meet anie man, woman, or child, saving in towns and
cities ; nor yet see any beast, but the very wolves, the
foxes, and other lilie ravening beasts, many of them
laie dead, being faniisht, and the residue gone else-
where."— Hollinshed, vi. 459.

But let me refer again to Spenser. His description re-
lates even to an earlier period of the war. He is speak-
ing of the province of Munster ; these are liis words : —

" Notwithstanding that the same was a most rich
nnd plentiful country, full of corne and cattel, yet, ere
one yeare and a half, they were brought to such
wretchedness as that any stony heart would rue the
same. Out of every corner of the woods and glynns,
they came creeping forth upon their hands, for their
legs could not bear them ; they looked like anatomies
of death ; they spake like ghosts crying out of their
graves : they did eate the dead carrions, happy where
they could find them ; yea, and one another soone
after : insomuch as the very carcases they spared not
to scrape out of their graves, and, if they found a
plot of watercresses or shamrocks, there they flocked
as to a feast for the time ; yet, not able to continue
there withal ; that in shorte space, there was none
almost left, and a most populous and plentiful
countrey suddainlie left voyde of man and beast." —
/Spense7''s State of Ireland^ p. 165.

I pray attention to these two passages. The first
from Morrisson's History of Ireland^ foho p. 272 j it is
thus abstracted by Qurry iu his Review : —

90 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. I.

_ " Because," says Morrison, " I have often made men-
tion formerly of our destroying tlie rebel's come, and
using all means to famish them ; let me now, by tAvo or
three examples, show the miserable estate to which they
were thereby reduced." He then, after telling us that
Sir Arthur Chichester, Sir Richard Morrison, and other
commanders, saw a most horrid spectacle of three
children, whereof the eldest was not above ten years'
ojd, feeding on the flesh of their dead mother, with
circumstances too shocking to be repeated ; and that
the common sort of rebels were driven to unspeakable
extremities, beyond the records of any histories that
he had ever read in that kind ; he mentions a horrid
stratagem of some of these wretched people, to allay
the rage of hunger, in the following manner : — " Some
old women," says he, " about the Newry, used to make
a fire in the fields, and divers little children, driving
out the cattle in the cold mornings and coming thither
to Avarm themselves, were by these women surprised,
killed, and eaten ; which was at last discovered, by a
great girl breaking from them by the strength of her
body ; and Captain Trevor sending out soldiers to
know the truth, they found the children's skulls and
bones, and apprehended the old women, who were
executed for the fact. No spectacle," adds Morrison,
" was more frequent in the ditches of towns, and es-
pecially in the wasted countries, than to see multitudes
of these poor people dead, with their mouths all coloured
green by eating nettles, docks, and all things they
could rend up above the ground."

Such were the means by which the final subjugation
of Ireland was produced. Such were the preparations
made for the reign of James the First. And I might
close the proofs and illustrations of my first chapter,
in the words of Sir John Davies : —

" Thus had the Queen's army, under Lord Mount-
joy, broken and absolutely subdued all the lords and
chieftains of the Irishry. Whereupon, the multitude
being brayed as it were in a mortar, with sword,

CHAP. I.] Pr.OOrS, ETC. 91

famine, and pestilence together, submitted themselves
to the English Government, received the laws and
magistrates, and most gladly embraced the King's*
pardon and peace in all parts of the realm, with de-
monstrations of joy and comfort."

Yes, Sir John Davies ! The Irish people were
brayed as in a mortar : and the process of " braying
as in a mortar" has been continued from that day to
this. It has, in fact, been the leading principle in the
government of Ireland. Never was any people on the
face of the globe so cruelly treated as the Irish !

I cannot conclude my selections illustrating the
reign of Queen Elizabeth, without bringing out of the
obscurity of the statute book, and giving publicity
to, the nature of the title by which Elizabeth claimed
the province of Ulster, It will be found embalmed,
with most ludicrous solemnity, in an Act of the Irish
Parliament, entitled : " An Act for the attainder of
Shane O'Neill, and the extinguishment of the name
of O'Neill, and the entitling of the Queen's Majesty,
her heirs and successors, to the countiy of Tyrone,
and other countries and territories in Ulster." This
Act was passed in the year 1569 ; it is the lltli of
Elizabeth, sess, 3, chap. 1 : —

"And now, most deere sovereign Ladie, least that
any man which list not to seeke and learn the truth,
might be ledd, eyther of his own fantastical imagi-
nation, or by the sinister suggestion of others, to thinke
that the sterne or lyne of the O'Neyles should or
ought, by priority of title, to hold and possess annie
part of the dominion or territories of Ulster before
your Majestic, your heirs and successors : wee, your
Grace's said faithful and obedient subjects, for avoyd-
ing of all such scruple, doubt, and erroneous conceyt,
doo intend here (pardon first craved of your Majestic
for our tedious boldness) to disclose unto your High-
ness your auncient and sundrie strong authentique
titles, conveyed farr beyond the said lynage of the

* James the First.

92 OBSERVATIONS, [cHAP. I.

O'Neyles and all other of the Irish, to the dignitie,
state, title, and possession of this your realm of Ireland.

" And therefore it may like your most excellent
Majestie to be advertised, that the auncient chronicles
of this realm, written both in the Latine, English,
and Irish tongues, alledged sundrie auncient titles for
the kings of England to this lande of Irelande. And
first, that at the beginning, afore the comming of
Irishmen unto the sayd lande, they were dwelling in
a province of Spayne, the which is called Biscan,
whereof Bayon was a member, and the chief citie.
And that, at the said Irishmen's comming into Ire-
land, one King Gurmond, son to the noble King
Belan, King of Great Britaine, which is now called
England, was Lord of Bayon, as many of his succes-
sors were to the time of King Henry the Second, first
conquerour of this realm ; and therefore the Irishmen
should be the King of England his people, and Ireland
his land.

" Another title is, that at the same time that Irish-
men came out of Biscay as exhiled persons, in sixty
ships, they met mth the same King Gurmond upon the
sea at the ysles of the Orcades, then comming from Den-
mark with great victory. Their captains, called
Hebrus and Hermon, went to this King, and him tolde
the cause of their comming out of Biscay, and him
'prayed, with greate instance, that he would graunt
unto them that they might inhabit some lande in the
west. The King at the last, by the advice of his
councell, granted them Ireland to inhabite, and as-
signed unto them guides for the sea, to bring them
thither : and therefore they should and ought to be
the King of England's men.

"Another title is, as the clerke Geraldus Cam-
brensis writeth at large the historic of the conquest of
Ireland by King Henry the Second, your famous pro-
genitor, how Dermot Mac Morch, Prince of Leinster,
which is the first part of Ireland, being a tyrant or
tyrants, banished, went over the sea into Normandie,

CHAP. I.] PROOFS, ETC. 93

ill the parts of France, to the said King Henry ; and
him basely besought of succour, which he obtained,
and thereupon became liegeman to the said King Henry,
through which he brought power of Englishmen into
the land, and married his daughter, named Eve, at
Waterford, to Sir Richard Fitz-Gilbert, Earle of
Stranguile in Wales, and to him granted the reversion
of Leinster, with the said Eve his daughter. And
after that the said Earle granted to the said King
Henry the citie of Dublin, with certain cantreds of
lands next to Dublin, and all the haven towns of
Leinster, to have the rest to him in quiet with his
Grace's favour.

" Another title is, that in the year of our Lord God
one thousand one hundred sixtie two, the aforesay'd
King Henry landed at the citie of Waterford within
the realm of Ireland ; and there came to him Der-
mot, King of Corke, which is of the nation of the
M'Carties, and of his own proper will became liege tri-
butarie for him and his kingdom, and upon that made
his oathe and gave his hostages to the King. Then
the King roade to Cashell, and there came to him
Donald, King of Limerick, which is of the nation of
the O'Brienes, and became his liege as the other did.
Then came to him Donald, King of Ossorie, Mac
Sha^lin, King of Oplialy, and all the princes of the
south of Ireland, and became his liegemen as afore-
said. Then went the said King Henry to Dublin,
and there came to him O'Kirnill, King of Uriel,
O'Rourke, King of Meth, and Eotherick, King of
all Irishmen of the land, and of Connaught ; with all
the princes and men of value of the land, and became
liege subjects, and tributaries, by great oaths for them,
their kingdoms and lordships to the said King
Henry ; and that of their own good wills, as it should
seem ; for that the chronicles make no mention of
any warre or chivalry done by the said King, all the
time that he was in Ireland.

This, to be sure, is a most ludicrous piece of legis-

94 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. II

lation— -absurd lo a degree that will make any man
stare -with astonishment who reads it at the present
day. The only rational title which it mates out
being one of compact, giving the people of Ireland a
right to the benefit of British laws — a right wliich is
a dead letter even unto the present day !

CHAPTER II.-PART I.

Years 1612—1625.

The extracts which I have given from Irish history,
in corroboration of the text of my first chapter, will
have given the reader some idea of the multiplied and
variegated cruelties, horrors, treacheries, and mas-
sacres by which the English dominion was extended
.nnd maintained in various parts of Ireland ; and at
length spread all over the entire land by means of
provoked famine and pestilence. Queen Elizabeth
did not live long enough to enjoy the consummation
of this fiendish policy, nor to reign amidst the tran-
quillity of the grave. It remained for her unworthy
successor to reap the fruits of her cruebies. The
people being "brayed as in a mortar" — I like to re-
peat the phrase of Sir John Davies — the survivors
readily acquiesced in any alteration of law, and very
gratefully received that alteration which, in the year
1612, acknowledged, for the first time, the Irish as
subjects, and admitted them under the protection of
the Crown.

It affords an inquiry of some interest to ascertain
what was the genius and the disposition — what the
social and moral character of the people who had en-
dured such hideous cruelties, and who were now
made citizens of the State. I will not draw that
character in the glowing colours in which it has been
painted by Irish writers, or by any favourers or par-
tisans of the Irish. I will take that character from

CHAP. II.] PROOFS, ETC. 95

Eiiglislimen and Protestants, and from persons who
themselves were participators in the crimes which I
have mentioned, and in those which remain to be
described.

The following is from an English Protestant WTiter,
by no means favorable to the Irish ; on the contrary,
a man disposed to speak ill of, and to calumniate
them and their clergy. Here is the worst he conld
say of them : —

*' The people are thus inclined, religious, frank,
amorous, irefull, sufferable of infinite paines, verie
glorious, menie sorcerers, excellent horsemen delighted
with warres, great alms-givers, passing in hospitality.
The lewder sorts, both clerks and laiemen, are scnsuall
and ouer loose in living. The same being vertuouslie
bred up or reformed, are such mirrors of holinesse
and austeritie, that other nations retain but a
shadow of devotion in comparison of them. As for
abstinence and fasting, it is to them a familiar kind
of chastisement." — Stanihurst, apud Hollinshed, vi. 67.

But as character is best shown by individual traits,
especially when the writer is one adversely inclined,
I select a passage descriptive of the fidelity that
existed between foster brothers amongst the Irish ; and
it is not going too far to say that a people capable of
such high and generous attachment to each other, and
to their duty, ought to rank high in the estimation of
good men. Mark the follovvdng extract : —

'^ You cannot find one instance of perfidy, deceit, or
treachery among them ; nay, they are ready to expose
themselves to all manner of dangers for the safety of
those who sucked their mother's milk. You may beat
them to a mummy ; you may put them on the rack ;
you may burn them on a gridiron ; you may expose
them to the most exquisite torture that the cruellest
tyrant can invent ; yet you will never remove them
from that innate fidelity which is grafted in them ;
you will never induce them to betray their duty. "-
Ware.n. 73.

96 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. II.

I will now add more favourable testimony of other
English Protestant writers. Take this passage from
a decided enemy of the Irish name and nation : —

"The Irish themselves were a people peaceable,
harmless, and affable to strangers and to all, pious
and good, whilst they retained the religion of their
forefathers.'^ — Borlase, 14.

Baron Finglas, who was Chief Baron of the Ex-
chequer under Henry VIII., places the Irish character
on a far higher ground than the English, so far as
concerns submission to law and justice. He says : —

" It is a great abusion and reY)roach that the laws
and statutes made in this land are not observed ne
kept, after the making of them, eight days, which
matter is one of the destructions of Englishmen of
this land : and divers Irishmen doth observe and
keepe such laws and statutes which they make upon
hills in their country, finn and stable, withovit break-
ing them for any favour or reward." — Baron Finglas
Hihernica, 51.

The next is from Lord Coke, who cannot be sus-
pected of any undue leaning in favour of the Irish : —

I have been informed by many of those that had
judicial places in Ireland, and [know] partly of my
oAvn knowledge, that there is no nation of the Chris-
tian world that are greater lovers of justice than the
Irish are : which virtue must of course be accom-
panied by many others." — Coke, iv. Tnsf. 349.

The next is a passage which has often been quoted
from the celebrated Sir John Davies : —

" They will gladly continue in this condition of
subjects without defection, or adhering to any other
lord or king, as long as they may be protected and
justly governed, without oppression on the one side,
or impunity upon the other. For there is no nation
of people under the sun that doth love equal and
indifferent justice better than the Irish ; or will rest
better satisfied with the execution thereof, although
it be against themselves." — Davies' Hist Tracts, 213.

CHAP. II.] PROOFS, ETC. 97

There has been lately published, by the Irish Archaeo-
logical Society, in the first volume of their Tracts
relating to Ireland, a small work entitled " A Briefe
Description of Ireland, made in the year 1589, by
Ptobert Payne :" from which I select two extracts that
confirm strongly the praises bestowed upon the Irish
love of justice : —

"Nothing is more pleasing unto them, than to heare
of good justices placed amongst them. They have a
common saying, which I am persuaded they speakc
unfeignedly, which is, defend me and spend me ;
meaning from the oppression of the worser sorte of
our countrymen. They are obedient to the laws ; so
that you travel through all the land without any
danger or injurie offered of the verye worst Irish, and
be greatly relieved of the best." (page 4.)

My next quotation is peculiarly interesting at the
present moment, It shows what the corporations of
Ireland were in Catholic timeSj before Protestantism
and exclusion were the ruling impulses : —

"But, as touchiiig their government in their corpo-
rations where, they beare rule, is done with such
wisdome, equity, and justice, as demerits Avorthy
commendations. For I myself divers times have seene
in severall places within their jurisdictions wel near
twenty causes decided, at one sitting, with such indif-
ferencie that for the most parte both plaintife and
defendant hath departed contented : yet manie that
make show of peace, and desireth to live by blood, doe
utterly mislike this or any good thing that the poore
Irish man clothe." — Ihid.

There is nothing new u.nder the sun. The tran-
quillity which existed in Ireland, whilst the disposi-
tion of the Melbourne Government was evinced, to
administer the- laws impartially, had been found at
former periods to arise from precisely a similar cause.
Sir John Perrofc had endeavoured to show the Irish
impartial justice, and Hooker, who, in some of his
writi<'*-:*s, bestows on the Irish unmeasured vitupera-

98 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. IL

tion and abuse, yet says that at the close of Sir John
Perrot's administration — ^

" Everie man with a white sticke only in his hands,
and with great treasures, might and did travell with-
out feare cr danger where he woulde (as the writer
heerof by trial! knew it to be true), and the white
sheepe did keepc the blacke, and all the beasts lay
continually in the fields, without stealing or preie-
ing.'' — Hooker ; apud Hollimhed^ vi. 370.

Let us listen to Sir John Davies upon this subject,
and one will imagine it is the Attorney-General of
the Melbourne Government who speaks : —

" I dare affirm that in the space of five years last
past, there have not been found so many malefactors
worthy of death, in all the six circuits of this realm,
which is now divided into thirty-two shires at large,
as in one circuit of six shires, namely, the western cir-
cuit in England ! For the truth is, that, in time of
peace, the Irish are more fearful to offend the law
than the English, or any other nation whatsoever." —
Davies, p. 200.

As to the bravery of the Irish, it may be superfluous
to give any proof of it from Protestant and inimical
testimony; since friends and foes alike admit the
chivalrous gallantry of the Irish people ; and the
Scotch pliilosophers have lately demonstrated the
superiority of their physical powers. I cannot, how-
ever, refrain from inserting the foUomng quotation
from Edmund Spenser : —

" I have heard some great warriors say, that in all
the services which they had seen abroad in foreign
countries, they never sav/ a more comely man than
the Irishman, nor that cometh on more bravely to his
charge." — Spenser's Ireland.

These now are all noble traits in the character of
the Irish people. Fidelity — proof against every temp-
tation of bribery or torture \ fidelity which nothiug
could buy, and which notiiing could intimidate !
" Piety and goodness whilst her people adliered" (aiid
they do yet adhere) *' to the religion of their fore-

CHAP. II.] PROOFS, ETC. 99

fathers.'^ But, above all, transcendently stands tlie
glorious title, "lovers of justice" — "lovers of equal
and impartial justice." Lovers of justice, not only
when they obtain it for themselves, but loving it so
dearly that they are satisfied with its execution -even
when against themselves. Military valour not excelled
by any nation in existence ! And upon whose testi-
mony is it that the Irish claim the glory of these quali-
ties 1 From the testimony of strangers, aliens, enemies !
I challenge the world to produce an instance of such
praise bestowed on any nation by persons not them-
selves interested in or connected with such praise.

It may be objected that near 300 years have elapsed
since these praises were bestowed, and that the Irish
may have mucli changed since that period. But what
says the truth of history 1 The Irish have been
since severely tried in the furnace of affliction ; they
have been assailed with treachery and persecution ;
and yet they have exhibited the most unalterable
fidelity to the faith which they in their consciences
preferred. No money could bribe— no torture could
compel them to forsake the allegiance which they
owed to their God. Compare their conduct in this
respect with that of any other nation under the sun ;
and admit (for truth compels the admission) that the
glory of religious fidelity supereminently belongs to
the people of Ireland. You may say, perhaps, that
their faith was erroneous, their creed mistaken, and
their practice superstitious. Suppose it were so. Yet
their fidelity was religious ; it was attachment to the
religion they deemed the true one ; and this national
trait of their character ought not to be tarnished
even in the opinion of those who do not agree with
them as to its object. It will not be thus tarnished
in the mind of any just or generous man.

Again, we perceived, during the late administration,
the same respect i^aid to the attempt on the part of
the Irish Government to purify the administration of
justice : the same tranquillity follows, from the hope
of having justice administered.

100 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. II.

Again, behold the national movement in favour of
temperance. There are more than five millions pledged
to total abstinence from all intoxicating liquors.
What nation upon the face of the earth can afford
such an example as this 1 But it may be said that
this temperance movement is transitory. To those
who may say so I reply, that the first trait in the Irish
character is fidelity of purpose — fidelity superior to
corruption, to force, and to temptation ! I do there-
fore feel it my duty solemnly to declare, that the
people of Ireland, the lovers of impartial justice,
stand superior in their national characteristics to the
inhabitants of any other country on the face of the
globe. I am, therefore, proud of my fatherland. Nor
is it the less dear to me because of the evils that have
been inflicted upon it, the oppression it has endured,
and the tj^ranny that it has nearly survived :

** More dear in thy sorrow, thy gloom, and thy showers,
Than the rest of the v/orld in their sunniest hours."

Nor is it the less loved by me, because of the slavery
that has been treacherously imposed upon it :
*' No ! thy chains as they rankle, thy blood as it runs,

But make thee more painfully dear to thy sons !

Whose hearts, like the young of the desert-bird's nest,

Drink love in each life-drop that flows from thy breast."

It will have been observed, that the alteration in
religion, commonly, but most improperly, called " The
Eeformation" — for it cannot seriously be called a
Reformation at all — occurred in the period included
in the first chapter. But I have designedly omitted
all mention of it, having reserved it for a separate
and distinct consideration.

_ When Luther commenced the great schism of the
sixteenth century, all Christendom was Catholie.
Ireland, of course, was so. It has indeed been said
—for what vdW not religious bigotry say 1 — that the
Catholic Church in Ireland did not recognize the
authority of the Pope, and was severed from the

CHAP. II.J PIIOOFS, ETC. 10]

CUiurcli of Eome. This assertion was gravely brought
forward by Archbishop Usher, who was indeed it8
principal fabricator. But the Eight Rev. Dr. Milner
has distinctly shown that there is the most conclusive
historical evidence, in the works of Usher himself, to
demonstrate the utter falsehood of his own assertion.
And there is a curious incident belonging to this con-
troversy vv^hich occurred before Milner wrote — namely,
that the credit of Usher's assertion having been much
impugned, a grandson of his, a Protestant clergyman,
determined to confute the impugn ers of his grand-
father's statement ; and, with that view, carefully
examined the authorities upon the subject ; when, to
his utmost surprise, he discovered the total falsehood
of that statement ! Being led by this circumstance to
examine the other points of difference between the
Catholics and Protestants, he ended by giving up his
living,* resigning his gown as a Protestant clergyman,
and embracing the profession of a Catholic priest.

It has been often remarked that in all the countries
into which Protestantism entered, it owed its intro-
duction to men remarkable for the badness of
their character, and the greatness of their vicep.
Protestantism was not more fortunate in Ire-
land than it was elsewhere. It owed its intro-
duction into Ireland, as it did into England, to the
foul passions of Henry the Eighth ; but in Ireland its
principal patron was Archbishop Browne (as he is
called ; but his title to the archbishopric would not
have stood canonical investigation). The Act of
Supremacy — that Act which so absurdly vested in the
King — and such a King ! — spiritual power — was passed
by a gross and glaring fraud. The proctors of the
clergy had, from the commencement of the parlia-
ments held in Ireland, been received as members of
that body. It would have been impossible to pass
the Act of Supremacy if they had remained in the
house. Henry the Eighth made short work of the
matter — he expelled them ! He procured then an

102 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. 11.

Act of Parliament making it high treason to dispute
the validity of the marriage of the wretched Ann
Boleyn, or the legitimacy of her child. ^ He soon
afterwards procured another Act of Parliament, by
which it was made treason to assert that validity o*
legitimacy ! That was the mode in which Protes-
tantism was made the law of the land !

It is curious enough that the Act of Uniformity
was passed in Ireland by another gross and ludicrous
trick. The historian"^ informs us, that —

" It was passed by the artifice of one Mr. Stany-
hurst, of Corduff, then Speaker of the Irish Commons,
who, being in the Pteforming interest, privately got
together, on a day when the house was not to sit, a
few such members as he knew to be favourers of that
interest, and consequently in the absence of all those
who he believed would have opposed it. B\it that
these absent members having understood^ what passed
at that secret convention, did soon after, in a full and
regular meeting of the parliament, enter their protests
against it : upon which the Lord Lieutenant assured
many of them in particular, with protestations and
oaths, that the penalties of that statute should never
be inflicted ; which they, too easily believing, sufi"ered
it to remain as it was. This, adds my author, I have
often heard for certain truth from many ancient people,
who lived at that time ; and I am the more inclined
to believe it, because the Lord Lieutenant's promise
was so far kept that this law was never generally exe-
cuted during the remainder of Queen Elizabeth's
reign ; — ' that is,' observes Curry on the foregoing
passage, 'until all or most of those members were
probably dead, to whom such promise had been given.'

" Sir Christopher Nugent asserted publicly before
the King, the traditional report of the Irish, that this
statute was passed in the fraudulent manner above
mentioned." — Aiialecta Sacra, p. 431.

* Mr. Lynch, in his Cambrensis Everaus.

CHAP II.] PROOFS, ETC, 103

It is right to obsen^e, that these Acts of Parliament
were operative only upon a small portion of the
inhabitants of Ireland ; only ten counties being repre-
sented, and the entire number of members of the
House of Commons did not exceed from sixty to
eighty. It is unnecessary to say, that, so far as the
English dominion extended, persecution was vigorous.
The utmost cruelty was exercised to the extent of the
power of the English Government. Doctor Johnson
says that there is no instance, even in the ten per-
secutions, equal to the severity which the Protestants
of Ireland have exercised against the Catholics. Tliis
is literally true wherever the English power extended.
The reign of Edward the Sixth was marked by the
intensity with which the system of attempting to Pro-
testantize Ireland was carried on.

Take this specimen : —

"The means of conversion which the Protector
(Somerset) designed to use in Ireland, were soon
exemplified. A party, issuing from the garrison of
Athlone, attacked the ancient church of Clonmacnoise,
destroyed its ornaments, and defiled its altars. Simi-
lar excesses were committed in other parts of the
country ; and the first impression produced by the
advocates of the reformed religion was, that the new
system sanctioned sacrilege and robbery." — Taylor's
Hist, of the Civil Wars of Ireland^ vol. i., p. 167.

But it was in the reign of Elizabeth that the per-
secution of the Catholics raged with the greatest fuiy ;
as the policy of her officers in creating their familiar
instruments of famine and pestilence extended her
dominion, religious persecution extended with it.
Amongst the multitude of CathoKc priests who were
murdered in the most barbarous manner, I give two
specimens in the following extracts. The first is from
Curry's Review of the Civil Wars of Ireland ; p. 9
(note) : —

" In this reign, among many other Roman Catholic
priests and bishops, there were put to death for the

104 OBSERVATIONS, • [cHAP. II.

exercise of tlieir function in Ireland, Glaby O'Boyle,
abbot of Boyle of the diocese of Elphin, and Owen
O'Muikeren, abbot of the monastery of the Holy
Trinity in that diocese, hanged and quartered by Lord
Gray in 1580 ; John Stephens, priest, for that he said
mass to Teague M'Hugh, was hanged and quartered
by the Lord Burroughs, in 1597 ; Thady O'Boyle,
guardian of the monastery of Donegal, was slain by
the English in his own monaster^'- ; six friars were
slain in the monastery of Moynihigan ; John O'Calyhor
and Bryan O'Trevor, of the order of St. Bernard, were
slain in their own monastery, De Santa Maria, in
Ulster ; as also Felimy O'Hara, a lay brother ; so was
Eneas Penny, parish church of Killagh, slain at the
altar of his parish church there ; Cahall M 'Goran,
Rory O'Donnellan, Peter O'Quillan, Patrick O'Kenna,
George Power, vicar-general of the diocese of Ossory ;
Andre v/ Stretch, of Limerick, Bryan O'Muirihirtagh,
vicar-general of the diocese of Clonfert; Dorohow
O'Molony of Thomond, John Kelly of Louth, Stephen
Patrick of Annaly, John Pillis, friar, Ptory M'Henlea,
Tirrilagh M'Inisky, a lay brother. All those that come
after Eneas Penny, together with Walter Farnan, priest,
died in the Castle of Dublin, either through hard
usage or restraint, or the -^dolence of torture."

My next extract is from Milner's Letter's to a Pre-
bendary : —

" The penal laws were in general no less severely
exercised against the Catholics of Ireland, though they
constituted the body of the people, than they were
against those of England. Spondanus and Pagi relate
the horrid cruelties exercised by Sir William Drury
on F. O'Hurle, O.S.F., the Catholic Archbishop of
Cashel, who, falling into the hands of this sanguinary
governor, in the year 1579, was first tortured, by his
legs being immersed in jack-boots filled with quicklime,
water, &c., until they were burnt to the bone, in order
to force him to take the Oath of Supremacy; and then,
with other circumstances of barbarity, executed on the

CHAP. TL] proofs, etc. 105

gallows : having previously cited Drury to meet liiui
at the tribunal of Christ within ten days, who accord-
ingly died within that period, amidst the most ex-
cruciating pains. See in Bourke's Hihernia ])o-
7uviicana, a much longer list and a more detailed
account of Irish sufferers, especially in Elizabeth's
reign, on the score of religion. It was a usual thing
to beat with stones the shorn heads of their clergy,
till their brains gushed out. Others had needles
thrust under their nails, or the nails themselves were
torn off. Many were stretched upon the rack, or
pressed under weights. Others had their bowels torn
open, which they were obliged to support with their
hands, or their flesh torn \^dth curry-combs." — Milnei^s
Leffrrs to a Prebendary, Letter iv. (note).

The following anecdote I have taken from the often-
quoted work of Carew : —

" Towards the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign, her
Majesty's forces besieging the castle of Cloghan, and
understanding that in tlie same there was a Romish
priest, (to which order of men they never gave
quarter,) having also in their hands the brother of
the constable who had the charge of the castle, the
commanding officer sent him Vv^ord that if he did ncjt
presently surrender the castle to him, he would hang
his brother in their sight. But to save the priest,
whose life they tendered, they persevered obstinately
not to yield : whereupon the officer, in tlieir sight,
hanged the constable's brother. Nevertheless, within
four days afterwards, the priest being shifted away in
safetj'", the constable sued for a protection, and sur-
rendered the castle." — Pacata Hihernia, p. 358.

The remarks of this author are quite characteristic ;
he thus continues : —

" I do relate this accident, to the end that the
reader may the more clearly see in what reverence and
estimation these ignorant and superstitious Irish do
hold a popish priest ; in regard to whose safety the
constable was content to suffer liis brother to perish."

How totally d(X\:; Carew forget that the murder of

106 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. II.

the constable's brother was the crime of the enlight-
ened English officer! Whereas the "ignorant and
superstitious" Irish commander had too much con-
science to be accessory to the murder of an inn ocent
man — a man who had committed no crime except that
of being a priest ! Ignorant and superstitious, in deed !
I readily retort the charge with a small variation !
The English commander and the English writer are
utterly ignorant of every rule of morality, and are
alilie brutal and unprincipled in the act and in the
comment.

But there is a contrast of still a higher and more
glorious nature. It is the contrast between the vir-
ulent and murderous persecution of the English
Protestant Government, and the humane and truly
Christian demeanour of t lie Irish Catholics when re-
stored to power. The reigns of Henry the Eighth and
Edward the Sixth passed away. Queen Mary ascended
the throne. Catholicity was restored to power in
Ireland mthout difficulty — without any kind of
struggle. How did the Catholics— the Irish Catholics
— conduct themselves towards the Protestants, who
had been persecuting them up to the last moment 1
How did they — the Catholics — conduct themselves 1
1 will take the answer from a book, published several
years ago by Mr. WiUiam Parnell— a Protestant
gentleman of high station— the brother of a Cabinet
Minister : —

A still more striking proof that the Irish Eoman
Catholics, in Queen Mary's reign, were very little in-
fected Vvith religious bigotry, may be drawn from
their conduct towards the Protestants when the Pro-
testants were at their mercy.

" Were we to argue from the representations of the
indelible character of the Catholic religion, as pour-
trayed by its adversaries, we should have expected
that the Irish Catholics would exercise every kind of
persecution which the double motives of zeal and re-
taliation could suggest : — the Catholic laity, in all the
impunity of triumphant bigotry, hunting the wretched

CHAP, il] proofs, etc. 107

heretics from their hiding places— the Catholic clergy
pouring out the libation of human blood at the shrine
of the God of mercy, and acting before high heaven
those scenes which make the angels weep.

" But on the contrary — though the religious feelings
of the Irish Catholics, and their feelings as men, had
been treated with very little ceremony during the
two preceding reigns, they made a wise and moderate
use of their ascendancy. They entertained no resent-
ment for the past : they laid no plans for future domi-
nation.

"Even Leland allows that the only instance of
popish zeal was annulling grants that Archbishop
Browne had made, to the injury of the see of Dublin ;
and, certainly, this step was full as agreeable to the
rules of law and equity as to popish zeal.

" The assertors of the Reformation during the pre-
ceding reigns were every way unmolested ; or, as the
Protestant historian chooses to term it, were allowed
to sink into obscurity and neglect.

" Such was the general spirit of toleration, that
many English families, friends to the Reformation,
took refuge in Ireland, and there enjoyed their
opinions and worship without molestation,

" The Irish Protestants, vexed that they could not
prove a single instance of bigotry against the Catholics,
in this their hour of trial, invented a tale, as palpably
false as it is childish, of an intended persecution (but
a persecution by the English Government, not by the
Irish Catholics), and so much does bigotry pervert
all candour and taste, that even the Earl of Cork,
Archbishop Usher, and, in later times. Dr. Leland,
were not ashamed to support the silly story of Dean
Cole and the Knave of Clubs !

" How ought these perverse and superficial men to
blush, who have said that the Irish Roman Catholics
must be bigots and rebels from the very nature of their
religion, and who have advanced this falsehood in the
very teeth of fact, and contrary to the most distinct
evidence of history !

108 OBSERVATIONS, [OHAP. II.

" The Irish Roman Catholics bigots ! The Irish
Roman Catholics are the only sect that ever resumed
power without exercising vengeance !

" Show a brighter instance, if you can, in the whole
page of history. Was this the conduct of Knox or
Calvin 1 or of the brutal council of Edward VI., who
signed its bloody warrants with tears 1 Has this been
the conduct of the Irish Protestants V — ParnelVs His-
torical Apology, pp. 35-37.

In the wretched history of dissension and cruelty
from the period of the Reformation to the present mo-
ment, there is no instance in which any people. Catho-
lic or Protestant, have been entitled to such a meed of
approbation as the Irish Catholics. There is no other
such instance. Protestantism can boast of nothing of
the kind — nor can the Catholics pf any other state in
tlie known world, give such a practical proof of Chris-
tian liberality. What a contrast between the English
and the Irish Catholics. You find the English Pro-
testants flying from English Catholic persecution, and
receiving refuge, shelter, and security in Ireland.
Queen Mary's persecution of Protestants leaned very
heavily on Bristol. And, accordingly, the merchants
of Dublin, being Catholics, and then forming the cor-
poration, are known to have hired no less than seventy-*
four furnished houses, which they filled with English
Protestant refugees from Bristol and its vicinage.
They lodged them— they fed them — they maintained
them, and sent them back safe and sound to England,
when the death of Mary restored Protestantism to
power there : and enabled the English Protestants to
retaliate with sevenfold severity on their Catholic
countrymen ; and — shame upon English Protestants
to make use of that power — again unrelentingly to per-
secute the generous and liberal Catholics of Ireland : —

Let me give another quotation from a modern
Protestant writer of very considerable literary merit
and discrimination. Wlien this writer comes to treat
of the reign of Queen Mary, he has the following
passage : —

CHAP. II.] PROOFS. KTC. 1X9

1553. " The restoration of the old religion was
effected without violence : no persecution of the
Protestants was attempted ; and several of the English,
who fled from the furious zeal of Mary's inquisitors,
found a safe retreat among the CcatlLolics of Ireland.
It is but justice to this maligned body to add, that on
the three occasions of their obtaining the upper
hand, they never injured a single person in life or
limb for professing a religion difl:erent from their own.
They had suffered persecution and learned mercy, as
they showed in the reign of Mary, in the wars from
1641 to 1648, and during the brief trinmph of James
ll." — Taylor's History of the Civil Wars of Ireland,
vol. i. p. 169.

I cannot better conclude my observations upon
Catholic liberality, than by giving an extract from the
historian Leland ; whose prejudices and whose inte-
rests made him necessarily most inimical to the
Catholic people and their religion. He, in fact, con-
firms everything I have said respecting the liberality
exhibited by the Irish Catholics during the melancholy
reign of Queen Mary. If anything could silence the
rancorous malignity with which the Irish people are
persecuted in their character as well as in their pro-
perty, it would be this distinct admission of their per-
fect tolerance to Protestants during the reign of Queen
Mary — an admission proceeding from so powerful an
adversary as Dr. Leland. I give his words : — _

" The spirit of popish zeal, which glutted all its ven-
geance in England, was, in Ireland, thus happily con-
fined to reversing the acts of an obnoxious prelate,
(namely, Browne, the Protestant Archbishop of Dublin)
and stigmatizing his offspring with an opprobrious
name. Those assertors of the Pieformation who had
not fled from this kingdom, were, by the lenity of the
Irish Government, suffered to sink into obscurity and
neglect. No warm adversaries of popery stood forth
to provoke the severity of persecution : the ■v\hole
nation seemed to have relapsed into the stupid com-
posure of ignorance and superstition from which it had
scarcely awakened. And as it thus escaped the effect .-

110 OBSEErATIONS, [CHAP. II.

of Mary's diabolical rancour, several English families
friends to the reformation, fled into Ireland, and there
enjoyed their opinions and worship in privacy, without
notice or molestc^ion." — LelancUs History of Ireland^
book iii. c. 8.

The following quotations may appear to derogate
from the merit of the Irish in resisting the spread of
that religious devastation called the Reformation.
But the facts which they record are so characteristic
of the English Protestantism of that period, that I
cannot refrain from placing them before the public.
The first of my quotations refers to the Protestant
bishops; and the reader will, I think, smile at the
readiness ^^dth which the author, no less a man than
the great poet Spenser, divalges the excuse of the
Protestant prelates for appropriating the tithes to
themselves. One would imagine, that if there were
no clergymen fit to be recipients of the tithes, there
ought not to be any tithes paid at all. If the people
were not even offered anything in the semblance of
value for the tithes, one would think the tithes should
not be demanded from them. But the poetic Spenser,
agreeing with the prosaic Stanley of the present day,
is of a clean contrary opinion ; and thinks that whe-
ther there be pray«u^s or no prayers — religion or no
religion — parsons or no parsons — still the tithes ! the
tithes ! the tithes ! ought at all events, and in every
contingency, to fatten the bishops, even if there were
no parsons to browse upon them : —

" Some of them, (the Protestant bishops) whose
diocese are in remote parts, somewhat out of the
world's eye, doe not at all bestowe the benefices which
are in their own donation, upon any, but keepe them
in their owne hands, and set their own servants and
horse-boys to take up the tithes and fruites of them ;
Mdth the which, some of them purchased great lands,
and built faire castells upon the same. Of which
abuse if any question be moved, they have a very
seemly colour and excuse, that they have no worthy
ministers to bestow them upon ! ! !" — Bpauer^ 140.

CHAP. II.] PEOOFS, ETC. Ill

It thus appearing that the talismanic word "tithes"
was mixed up with every evolution of Protestantism,
whether there were clergymen or none — good, bad,
or indifferent — let us now look to the case in which
there were actually parsons to receive the tithes ; and
let us estimate their merits from Spenser's testimony.
Speaking of the Protestant clergy of Ireland, he says,

" Whatever disorders you see in the Church of
England, you finde there, and many more. Namely,
gross simony, greedy covetousness, fleshly inconti-
nence, carelesse sloath, and generally all disordered
life in the common clergymen." — Spenser^ 139.

Such is Spenser's character of the Protestant clergy
of his day.

Let us now see what character this zealous Protes-
tant witness gives to the Catholic clergy. We shall
find — I say it triumphantly ! — that they bore the same
character for zeal and piety in that day as they do
at present, and occasionally extorted the praises of
even their bitterest enemies. Here is what Spenser
says of them, when contrasting their conduct with
that of the Protestant ministers ; one would really
imagine it was some candid enemy at the present day
who speaks !

"It is greate wonder to see the oddes which is
betweene the zeale of popish priests, and the ministers
of the gospel ; for they spare not to come out of
Spayne, from Rome, and from Remes, by long toile
and dangerous travayling hither, where they know
perill of deathe awaiteth them, and no reward or
riches is to be found, only to draw the people unto
the Church of Rome : whereas some of our idle
ministers, having a way for credit and estimation
thereby opened unto them, and having the livings of
the country ofiered to them, without paines and
without perill, will neither for the same, nor any love
of God, nor zeale for religion, or for all the good they
may doe by winning soules to God, be drawne forth
from their warm nests to looke out into God's
harvest." — Spenser, 254.

112 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. II.

Tlie character given of the Protestant clergy of
that period by Carte, is as follows : it fully accords
with the statement of Spenser : —

" The clergy of the Established Church were gene-
rally ignorant and unlearned, loose and irregular in
theu' lives and conversations, neoiigent of their cures,
and very careless of observing uniformity and decency
in divine worship." — Carte, i. 68.

NotMithstanding the ignorance and immorality of
the law-established clergy, they could occasionally
exhibit a sufficiency of anti- Catholic zeal to blast-
pheme and insult oar Divine Redeemer, by outraging
the memorials of him which are held sacred and
venerable among the Catholics. I give a specimen : —

" One Hewson, an English minister of Swords, fell
violently on one Horish of that place, and took from
him a crucifix, and hung the same upon a gallows
with these words under it, ' help, all strangers, for the
God of the papists is in danger.' Upon Horish's
complaining to the State, and producing the mangled
and defaced crucifix. Sir Geotfry Fenton, secretary,
insulted the poor man, snached the crucifix from him,
and cast it on the ground under his feet ; and Horish
for offering to complain of that abuse, was thrown
into prison." — Theatre of Catholic and Protestant
Religions, p. 117.

The memotials of our Saviour appear to have been
particularly oftensi-ve to the refined piety of this Sir
GeofFry Fenton : —

" The same Sir Geofl^ry Fenton did set a poor
fellow on the pillory in Dublin with the picture of
Christ about his neck, for having carried the same
before a dead friend at his funeral." — Ibid, p. 118^

A better idea may be conceived of the virulence of
the persecution of the Irish Catholics during the
reign of Queen Elizabeth, if we refer for one moment
to her sanguinary proceedings against the Catholics
of the more favoured portion of the empire — England.
Upon this subject I may refer to the authority of a
Catholic writer ; especially as the accuracy of his
statements stood the test of the adverse criiticism of

CHAl'. IJ.] PROC:S, ETC. 113

an able and virulent adversary — Doctor Sturges. In
the seventh edition of Dr. Milner's celebrated work
entitled Letters to a Prebendary, pp. 95, 96, there
occurs the following passage : —

" I have," says Dr. ^iihier, " collected the names of
204 persons executed on that sole account, (viz. for
being Catholics,) chiefly within the last 20 years of
Elizabeth's reign. Of this number 1 42 were priests,
three were gentlewomen, and the remainder esquires,
gentlemen, and yeomen. Amongst them 15 were con-
demned for denying the Queen's spiritual supremacy,
126 for the exercise of the priestly functions, and the
rest for being reconciled to the Catholic faith, or for
being aiding and abetting to priests. ^ Besides these,
I find a particular account, together with most of the
names of 90 priests or Catholic lay persons who died
in prison, in the same reign, and of 105 others, who
were sent into perpetual banishment. I say nothing
of many more who were whipped, fined, or stripped
of their property, to the utter ruin of their families.
In one night, 50 Catholic gentlemen in the county
of Lancaster, wer3 suddenly seized and committed
to prison on account of their non-attendance at
church. About the same time, I find an equal
number of Yorkshire gentlemen hdng prisoners in
York Castle on the same account, most of whom
perished there. These were every week, for a twelve-
month together, dragged by main force to hear the
established service performed in the castle chapel.
An account was published by a contemporary writer,
(Dr. Bridgewater,) ot 1200 Catholics, who had been
in some sort or othef \dctims of this persecution
previously to the year 1588 ; that is to say, during
the period of its greatest lenity." — Milner's Letters to
a Prebendary, Letter iv.

To show the intensity of the persecution and the
horrible nature of the cruelties inflicted by Protestant
Elizabeth and her Protestant advisers, I add the fol-
lovv^ng extract. Dr. Milner thus addresses his anta-
gonist, the Rev. Dr. Sturges : —

H

114 OBSEEVATIONS, [CHAP. II,

" Since, sir, you oblige me to enter upon this dis-
gusting subject, I must tell you, with respect to the
greater part of Catholic victims, that the sentence of
the law was strictly and literally executed upon them.
After being hanged up, they were cut down alive, dis-
membered, ripped up, and their bowels literally
burned before their faces, after which they were
beheaded and quartered ! The time employed in this
butchery was very considerable, and in one instance,
lasted above half an hour. I must add, that a great
number of these sufferers, as well as other Catholics,
who did not endure capital punishment, were racked
in the most severe and wanton manner, in order to
extort proofs against themselves or their brethren." —
Ihid, Letter iv.

It is an object of painful curiosity to contemplate
the modes in which men tortured each other in the
sacred aud holy name of religion. The following
succinct summary, given in a note to Letter iv. of the
" Letters to a Prebendary,'^ will afford a further idea
of the familiar instruments of Protestant persecution
in the reign of Queen Elizabeth : —

" Camden, in his Annals, speaking of the famous
r. Campian, says, ' that he was not so racked but that
he was still capable of signing his name.' It appears
from the account of one of these sufferers,* that the
f ollomng tortures were in use against Catholics in the
Tower : 1. The common rack, in which the limbs
were stretched by levers. 2. The Scavenger's Daughter,
so called, being like a hoop, in which the body was
bent until the head and feet met together. 3. The
chamber called Little Ease, being a hole so small that
a person could neither stand, sit, nor lie straight in
it. 4. The Iron Gauntlets." — Diar. Rer. Gest. in
Turri Loncl.

" In some instances needles were thrust under the
prisoners' nails. With what cruelty the Catholics
were racked, we may gather from the following pas-

* Carapian, Brian, Cottam, Sherwood> <fcc.

CHAP. II.] PEOOFS, ETC. 115

sage in a letter from John NichoUs to Cardinal AUen,
by way of extenuating the guilt of his apostacy and
his perfidy in accusing his Catholic brethren : ' Non
bona res est corpus isto cruciato Ion gius fieri per duos
fere 2)edes quam natura concessit? Sir Owen Hopton,
Lieutenant of the Tower, was commonly the imme-
diate instrument in these cruelties ; but sometimes
Elmer, Bishop of London, directed them. On one
occasion he caused a young lady of good birth to be
cruelly scourged, when he could not prevail on her to
attend the public service."

I cannot help remarking that nothing was ever more
unfounded than the notion that Protestantism was
favourable to freedom of conscience ; or that Protes-
tants were not persecutors. The contrary is directly
the fact. Protestants not only persecuted Catholics,
but they persecuted each other to the death. It is
worth while to read the notes on this subject in
Doctor Milner's book, appended to " Letter iv." pp.
65, 66, of the seventh edition. I quote the follow-
ing :—

Scotland.— ^'' The Reformation may be said to have
begun there by the assassination of Cardinal Beatoun,
in which Knox was a party, and to which Fox in his
Acts and Monuments, says the murderers were insti-
gated ' by the Spirit of God.' In 1560, the parliament
at one and the same time decreed the establishment
of Calvinism, and the punishment of death against
the ancient religion. 'With such indecent haste,' saj^s
Robertson, ' did the very persons who had just escaped
ecclesiastical tyranny proceed to imitate the example.'
{Hist, of Scotland.) See also the answer of the Pres-
bytery to the King and Council in 1596, concerning
the Catholic Earls of Huntly, Errol, &c., viz. that 'as
they (the earls) had been guilty of idolatry, a crime
deserving of death, the civil power could not spare
them.'"

France. — " In France, it is well known that wher-
ever the Huguenots carried their victorious arms
against their sovereign, they prohibited the exercise

116 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAr. II.

of the Catholic religion, slaughtered the priests and
religious ; burnt the churches and convents ; dug up
the dead to make bullets of their leaden coffins, &c.
See Maimhourg, Hist Calvinism; Tkuanus Hist.
L. xxxi. One of their own writers, Nicholas Frou-
nienteau, confesses, that in the single province of
Dauphiny they killed 256 priests, and 112 monks or
friars. {Liv. de France.) In these scenes the famous
Baron Des Adrets signalized his barbarity ; forcing
his Catholic prisoners to jump from the towers upon
the pikes of his soldiers ; and obliging his own chil-
dren to wash their hands in the blood of the Catholics."
The Low Countries. — "Dr. Sturges speaks with
horror of the persecution of the Protestants in the
Low Countries by the Duke of Alva, who, he says,
'boasted that he had delivered 18,000 heretics (he
should have said heretics or rebels — see Brandt) to the
executioner.' I heartily join with him in condemning
and execrating the sanguinary vengeance of the
Spanish Governor and Government against their
seditious subjects of the Calvinistic persuasion ; but
to form an adequate judgment of this case^ it is proper
to attend to the provocations which the former had
received from the latter. Not to mention the conspi-
racy of Carli and Risot to assassinate the Duke of
Alva himself at the monastery of Groonfeldt, near
Brussels, it is certain that one class of the Eeformers
had endeavoured to erect the same fanatical and
bloody kingdom in Hoi] and, w^hich John of Leyden
actually established at Munster, crying out that God
had given iip the country to them, and that vengeance
awaited all who would not join them. It was an or-
dinary thing with them to assault the clergy in the
discharge of their functions ; and the air resounded
with their cries of kill the priests, kill the monks, kill
the magistrates. These violences became more common
as the Reformation extended itself vdder. Wherever
Vandermerck and Sonoi, both of them lieutenants to
the Prince of Orange, carried tbeir arms, they uni-
formly put to death in cold blood all the priests and

CHAP. II.] PROOFS, ETC. 117

religious they could lay their hands upon, as at Oude-
narde, Ruremond, Dort, Middlebourg, Delft, and
Shonoven. See Hist. Ref. des Fays £as, by the Pro-
testant minister De Brandt ; also Dr. Patinson in his
Jerusalem and Bahel, p. 385. A late celebrated bio-
grapher. Feller, Diet. Hist. Art. Toledo, says that
Vandermerck slaughtered more unoffending Catholic
priests and peasants in the year 1572, than Alva exe-
cuted Protestants during his whole government. He
gives us, in the same passage, a copious extract from
HAhrege de VHistoire de la HoUande, par Monsieur
Kerroux, in which this Protestant writer, who pro-
fesses to write from judicial records still extant,
draws a most frightful picture of the infernal barbari-
ties of Sonoi on the Catholic peasants of North Hol-
land. He says that some of these, after undergoing
the torments of scourges and the rack, Avere enveloped
in sheets of linen that had been steeped in spirits of
wine, which being inflamed, they were miserably
scorched to death ; that others, after being tortured
with burning sulphur and torches in the tenderest
parts of their bodies, were made to die for want of
sleep, executioners being placed on guard over them
to beat and torment them with clubs and other
weapons whenever exhausted nature seemed ready to
sink into forgetfulness ; that several of them were fed
with nothing but salt herrings, without a drop of
water or any other liquid, until they expired Avith
thirst ; finally, that others were stung to death by
wasps, or devoured by rats, which were confined in
coffins with them. Amongst the cruelties there re-
counted are some of so indecent a nature that they
will not bear repeating ; and those which occur above
are only mentioned, to induce Dr. Sturges and other
writers of his class to join me in burying the odious
names of Alva and Sonoi in equal oblivion. Amongst
the more illustrious foreign Protestants who suffered
death by the violence of other Protestants, it may be
proper to mention the names of Servetus, Gentilis, Felix
Mans. Rotman, Barnevelt, (fee, not to mention Bolsec,

118 OBSEEVATIONS, [CHAP. II.

Grotius, and others, wlio were banished, or otherwise
persecuted for their religious opinions."

Enrjland. — " The following is a more circumstantial
account of the persecution which some Protestants
have exercised upon others in this country, than is
contained in the passage above quoted. In the reign
of Edward VI., in the year 1550, six Anabaptists were
condemned by Archbishop Cranmer, some of whom
recanted and carried faggots in sign of their having
merited burning ; and one of them, a woman, Joan
Knell, was actually burned alive. The following year
George Paris was condemned, and suffered in the
same manner. See Stow's Annals. During the reign
of Elizabeth, in the year 1573, Peter Burchet, a gentle-
man of the Middle Temple, was examined on the score
of heresy by Edward Sands, Bishop of London, but
recanted his opinions. In 1575, twenty-seven heretics
were at one time, eleven at another, and five at a
third, condemned for their errors, most of them by the
same Protestant bishop. Of these, twenty were
w^hipped and banished ; others bore their faggots ;
and two of them, John Peterson and Henry Turwort,
w^ere burned to death in Smithfield. In 1583, John
Lewes, 'for denying the Godhead of Christ,' says
Stow, was burned at Norwich ; at which place also,
Francis Kett, M.A., suffered the same kind of death
for similar opinions in 1589. Two years afterwards,
William Hackett was hanged for heresy in Cheapside.
Five others suffered death in this reign for being
Brownists — viz., Thacker, Copping, Green v»'Ood, Bar-
row, and Penry. The above particulars may be seen
in Stov/, Brandt, Limborch, Collier, Neal, &c.

" Under James I., Legat and Whitman were exe-
cuted for Arianism. In the time of Charles L, the
Dissenters complained loudly of their sufferings, and
particularly that four of their number, Leighton,
Burton, Prynne, and Bastwick, were cropped of their
ears, and set in the pillory. Limhorch, Hist, of Inqui-
sition ; Need, &c. When the Presbyterians afterwards
got the upper hand, they continued to put Catholics

CHAP. II.] PROOFS, ETC. 119

to death, and treated those of the former establish-
ment -with. ahno.s-t equal severitj^ ; at the same time
appointing days of humiliation and fasting, to beg
God's pardon for not being more intolerant. See JVeal^
Hist of Puritans ; also Hist of Churches of England
and Scotland, vol. iii. The editor of De Laime's
Plea for Non-Conformists, says, that this writer was
one of 8,000 Protestant Dissenters who 'perished
in prison in that single reign, — (\t[z., of Charles II.)
merely for dissenting from the Church.' Preface,
p. 2. He adds, ' that one of their people, Mr. \^ite,
had carefully collected a list of the sufferings of the
Dissenters ; that the Catholics, in the reign of James
II., offered him bribes to obtain this list ; that he re-
jected the offer, to prevent the black record from rising
np in judgment against the Church ; and that the
dignified prelates sent thanks and money to Mr.
White in reward for his services.' For the capital
punishments and other sufferings of the Quakers, see
Penn's Life of George Fox, folio." — Milntrs Letters to
a Prelendary, letter iv. (note).

The subject of the change of religion and the per-
secutions attending on it, ha.ve necessarily compelled
me to condense here the cruelties of several reigns,
and to range beyond the period embraced in my first
chapter, to which the present notes and illustrations
shonld more properly belong.

The treachery, the cruelty, the infernal injustice of
every shape and kind, whereby Elizabeth and her fol-
lowers obtained the dominion of Ulster, will be eluci-
dated by further extracts from Protestant historians.

Ere I close these evidences on the subject of reli-
gious persecution, I shall give, from the statute book,
the following abridged record of the penal Acts passed
against the Catholics of England ; from which the
reader can form his own judgment of Protestant tole-
ration in that country from 1548 to 1791.

120 OBSERVATIONS, • [CHAP. II.

Ah str act of Acts of Parliament made in England, on
the subject of jReligion, from the year 1548 to the
year 1791.

1548. — Any parson, vicar, or other minister, refus-
ing to use the Book of Common Prayer, and other
rites and ceremonies according to the use of the Church
of England, or using any other manner of prayer, or
speaking against the said Book of Common Prayer,
and being afterwards thereof three times convicted,
shall suffer imprisonment during his life.

1551. — Every person shall resort to Church where
Common Prayer shall be used, upon pain of punish-
ment by the censures of the Church. And any person
hearing or being present at any manner or form of
Common Prayer, of administration of the Sacraments,
making of ministers, or of any rites, other than those
set forth in the said Book of Common Prayer, shall
suffer imprisonment during his or their lives.

1558^The Queen declared to be supreme head of
the Church ; and all persons bearing promotions and
offices, ecclesiastical or temporal, refusing to take the
oath of Supremacy, disabled from retaining or exercis-
ing any such offices during life. Any person assert-
ing the jurisdiction, spiritual or ecclesiastical, of any
foreign prince, prelate, &c. as heretofore used within
this kingdom, shall, with his abettors, be attainted,
forfeit his estates, and suffer pains of death, and other
penalties and forfeitures, as in cases of high treason.

1563. — Any person refusing to take the oath of the

Sieen's Supremacy, to incur for the first such refusal,
e danger, penalties, pains, and forfeitures ordained
and provided by the statute of provisions and prae-
munire, made in the 16th year of King Richard II.
Refusing the oath a second time declared to be treason.
1581. — Statute enacting it to be treason to with-
draw any person from the religion established, to the
Romish religion. Treason to be reconciled or with-
drawn to the Romish religion. All aiders to suffer as
for misprision of treason.

CHAP. II.] PROOFS, ETC. 121

Any person saying or wilfully liearing mass, shall
forfeit 200 marks, and suffer twelve months' imprison-
ment.

Any person over the age of sixteen, not going to
church or usual place of common prayer, shall
forfeit <£20 English per month ; and should he
absent himself still, he shall give sufficient sureties
for £200 at least, "to their good behaviour," and
shall so continue bound until he conform himself and
come to church.

Any person keeping a schoolmaster who shall not
repair to the Established Church, shall forfeit £10 per
month.

Imprisonment in default of all the above payments.

1585. — All Jesuits, seminary, and other priests re-
maining in England, or entering the kingdom after
forty days, shall for such offence be adjudged a traitor,
and shall suffer, lose, and forfeit, as in case of high
treason.

Receiving or relieving any such persons shall be a
felony ; and sending money or relief to such persons
out of England shall be punished with the penalties
of pr;emunire, or, in other words, with transportation
and forfeiture of property.

NcAe. — Numerous executions of priests, &c., took
place under this Act ; and so late as the 30th of June,
1040, when En^iand and Scotland were in arms for
liberty of conscience. Rush worth mentions as an ordi-
nary occurrence, that one Morgan was hanged, drawn, .
and quartered at Tyburn for having received holy
orders in the Catholic Church beyond seas, and hav-
ing, in defiance of this Act, come into England. —
liushtuorth, iv. 305.

1587. — Two-thirds of the lands and other estates of
every person refusing to go to church, shall be taken
into the Queen's possession.

1593. — All recusants {i.e., persons refusing to con-
form to the new State creed) shall give in their names
to the curate of the parish, who will certify the same
to the justices, in order to take proceedings against

122 OBSERVATIONS, [OHAP. IT.

them. Any priest refusing to acknowledge himself as
such, shall be committed to prison.

[Query — Wherein difiered this from the Spanish
Inquisition 'i]

Any person over the age of sixteen years, refusing
to go to church, or impugning, by speeches, the
Queen's authority ecclesiastical, or persuading others
not to go to church, or going to any other place of
religious meeting, shall be committed to prison, there
to remain without bail or mainprize, until they
conform to the Church, and hear divine service as
established by law.

Any person offending against this Act, and not
coming in within three months, and conforming to
the Church, must abjure and depart out of the realm.
Refusal to do so is declared felony, without benefit of
clergy.

Any person keeping in his house any one who
refuses to go to church, shall forfeit £10 per month
for every person so refusing.

The lands and goods of persons forced to depart
out of the realm by this Act, shall be forfeited to the
. head of the State Church — ^the sovereign.

1605. — Churchwardens to return monthly lists of
persons refusing to attend divine service, and of
their children above nine yesuB of age. Justices to
make proclamation that all such offenders surrender
their bodies to the sheriff; monthly penalty, ,£20 each,
and two-thirds of their estates to be taken for the
King.

Every bishop shall examine the persons in his
diocese on oath ; and he who shall refuse to answer
upon oath, shall be committed to prison without
bail or mainprize.

[N.B. — The Inquisition again !]

Any person aged above eighteen years refusing the
oath of supremacy, shall incur the danger and penal-
ties of prasmunire. No indictments of such persons
shall be reversed for want of form.

Any person reconciling another to the Churph of

CHAP. II.] PROOFS, ETC. 123

Rome, shall have judgment, suffer, and forfeit, as in
cases of high treason I

The sheriff or other officer may break open any
house wherein popish re(3usants shall be.

1609. — Every person above the age of eighteen shall
take the oath of supremacy. Any person refusing to
do so, shall be committed to prison without bail or
mainprize, until the assizes ; and if he then refuse, he
shall incur the danger and penalty of praemunire,
except women covert, who shall be committed to
prison only, there to remain "\Adthout bail or main-
prize till they will take the said oath and conform, or
until her husband pay to the King o£lO per month, or
the third part of all his estate.

[Here we have perjury — foul perjury — enforced by
statute, under the penalty of praemunire. We
may note, that such was the rigid execution of these
infernal laws, that in 1626 we find Lord Scroop ac-
cused to the King of conniving at recusancy, inas-
much as he had convicted only 1670 Catholics in the
East Riding of Yorkshire.]

1670. — Justices of the peace, constables, (fcc, em-
powered to break open doors where any meetings of
a religious nature shall be held in any other manner
than according to the Liturgy and practice of the
Church of England. Fine of £-20 on preacher for the
first offence — £40 for the second. Fine of =£20 on any
one permitting such meetings in his house.

1688. — The declaration against popery directed to
be tendered to all papists, who, if they refuse the
same, shall forfeit and suffer as papist recusant con-
verts, under the laws already made since 1546, or
otherwise banishment or imprisonment for life, loss
of estate, and (in some cases) loss of life.

1700. — A reward of £100 for taking a popish bishop
or priest, and prosecuting him for saying mass, or ex-
ercising any of his functions.

1736 and 1757. — Statutes disabling any person re-
fusing to take the oaths of supremacy, &c., and the
law-sacrament, from suing at law or in equity ; from

124 OBsiEilVATIONS. [CHAP. II.

being tlie guardian of liis children ; from being execu-
tor or administrator, or from takjng by legacy or deed
of gift ; such offender to forfeit the sum of .£500.

The above is a very brief and imperfect abstract of
the persecuting laws enacted in England against
Catholics, and remaining on the statute book until
the year 1791.

CHAPTEH II.-PART II.

We have already seen, in the shape of an Act of Par-
liament passed in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the
ludicrous " title " she claimed from King Gurmond —
bless the mark ! ! We now must come to more sub-
stantial horrors. The testimony borne by the great
Edmund Burke to the crimes of the English Govern-
ment in Ireland, having especial reference to this
period, is w^ell worthy of transcription here. The
following are his words : —

" If we read Baron Finglass, Spenser, and Sir John
Davies, we cannot miss the true genius and policy of
the English Government there [viz., in Ireland], before
the Revolution, as well as during the whole reign of
Queen Elizabeth. Sir John Davies boasts of the bene-
fits received by the natives, by extending to them tlie
English law, and turning the whole kingdom into
shireground. But the appearance of things alone was
changed — the original scheme was never deviated
from for a single hour. Unheard-of confiscations
were made in the northern i^arts, upon grounds of
plots and conspiracies never proved upon tlieir sup-
posed authors. The war of chicane succeeded to the war
of arms and of hostile statutes ; and a regular series of
operations was carried on, particularly from Chichester's
time, in the ordinary courts of justice, and by special
commissions and inquisitions — first under pretence of
tenures, and then of titles in the Crown — for the pur-
pose of the total extirpation of the natives in their
own soil — until this species of subtle ravage, being

CHAP. II. J PKOOF.-:. ETC. 125

carried to the last excess of oppression and insolence
under Lord Stratford, it kindled the flames of that re-
bellion which broke out in 1641. By the issue of that
war, by the turn which the Earl of Clarendon gave
to things at the Restoration, and by the total reduc-
tion of the kingdom of Ireland in 1691, the ruin
of the native Irish, and, in a great measure, too,
of the first races of the English, w^as completely ac-
complished."

Let us hear the Ilev. Dr. Leland. He will tell us
how James set up a title derived from Henry II., to
disturb possessions of more than 400 years' standing,
since the reign of that monarch.

The foUomng extract, in which Leland has put
this matter in the most favourable point of view he
possibly could, will serve to give my English readers
a notion of the sort of justice the Irish found at the
hands of King James : —

"In pursuit of this favourite object (namely, the
'Plantation' of Ulster), he (viz. James) had some-
times recourse to claims which the old natives
deemed obsolete and unjust. The seizure of those
lands whose possessors had lately meditated rebellion,
and fled from the sentence of the law, produced little
clamour or murmuring. But when he recurred to
the concessions made to Henry II., to invalidate the
titles derived from a possession of some centuries,
the apparent severity had its full effect on those who
were not accpiainted with the reflnements of law,
and not prepossessed in favour of the equity of such
refinements, when employed to divest thein of their
ancient property." — Leland, book iv. chap. 8.

Tliis is the light manner in which Leland chooses
to treat the design of spoliation, which James and his
successor not only devised, but followed out and
carried into effect. I cannot use stronger language
than Leland — even Leland himself ! — has used in de-
scribing the process of this robbery according to law.
This is the way in which he describes what he terms
" the spirit of adventure" — he ought to have called it

126 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. n.

" the spirit of robbery" — actuating hordes of foreign
robbers to plunder the people of Ireland : —

" It was an age of project and adventure : men's
minds were particularly possessed with a passion for
new discoveries, and planting of countries. They
who were too poor or too spiritless to engage in more
distant adventures, courted fortune in Ireland." * *
" They obtained commissions of inquiry into defective
titles, and grants of concealed lands and rents be-
longing to the Crown ; the great benefit of which was
generally to accrue to the projector, whilst the King
was contented with an inconsiderable proportion of
the concealment, or a small advance of rent. Disco-
verers were everywhere busily employed in finding
out flaws in men's titles to their estates. The old
pipe-rolls were searched to find the original rents with
which they had been charged ; the patent rolls in the
Tower of London were ransacked for the ancient
grants ; no means of industry or devices of craft were
left untried, to force the possessors to accept of new
grants at an advanced rent. In general, men were
either conscious of defects in their titles, or alarmed
at the trouble and expense of a contest with the
Crown ; or fearful of the issue of such a contest, at a
time and in a country where the prerogative was
highly strained, and strenuously supported by the
judges." "^ ^ "^ " There are not wanting proofs
of the most iniquitous practices, of hardened cruelty,
of vile perjury, and scandalous subornation, employed
to despoil the fair and imoftending proprietor of his
inheritance." — Leland, book iv., chap. 8.

There is nothing new under the sun. In the reigns
of George IV. and William IV. somewhat of a similar
inquiry was instituted by the department of the
Woods and Forests. A man named Weale was em-
ployed to search for defective titles in Ireland, and a
great deal of plunder was obtained by that means ;
and it is principally owing to accidental causes that
the plunder was not much more extensive. People
were foolish enough to ascribe this persecuting inquiry

CHAP. II.] PROOFS, ETC. 127

into titles to an Orange disposition to render property
in Ireland insecure. That was all a mistake— there is
nothing new under the sun !

In proceeding to give some specimens of the atro-
cious robberies perpetrated upon the Irish under
James I., it may be both instructive and interesting
to show how the family of Parsons, now Earls of
Rosse, acquired estates in Ireland. The present earl
has given some specimens of his disposition towards
the priests and people of Ireland — a disposition that
would have done no discredit to his^ plundering
ancestors, although the day of plunder in the same
mode is gone by. liCt the reader attend to the tale of
the unfortunate Byrnes ; and he Avill see how miuch
it is in human nature that the family of Parsons should
not be kindly inclined to the natives of Ireland. At
all events it is perfectly safe to say, that such a speci-
men as we are about to afford of the most scandalous
and profligate plunder could not have been exhibited
in any other country than Ireland. It is thus recorded
by the intelligent historian, Dr. Taylor: —

" One case may be quoted, as a specimen of Irish
justice in those days. Bryan and Turlogli Byrne were
the rightful owners of a tract in Leinster, called the
Pianelaghs. Its vicinity to the capital made it a de-
sirable plunder ; and accordingly Parsons, Lord Es-
mond, and some others, determined that it should be
forfeited. The Byrnes, however, had powerful inte-
rest in England, and obtained a patent grant of their
lands from the King. Parsons and Esmond were not
to be disappointed so easily — they flatly refused to
pass the royal grant ; and deeming the destruction of
the Byrnes necessary to their safety, they had them
arrested on a charge of treason. The witnesses pro-
vided to support the charge, were Dufle, whom Tur-
logh Byrne, as a justice of the peace, had sent to prison
for cow-stealing ; Ma.cArt and MacGriffin, two noto-
rious thieves ; and a farmer named Archer. This last
long resisted the attempts to force him to become a
perjured witness, and his obstinacy was punished by

128 OBSEr.VATIONS, [OHAP. 11.

the most horrible tortures. He was burned in the
fleshy parts of the body with hot irons ; placed on a
gridiron over a charcoal fire ; and finally flogged until
nature could support him no longer, and he promised
to swear anj^thing that the commissioners pleased.
Bills of indictment were presented to two successive
grand juries in the county of Carlow, and at once ig-
nored, as the suborned Avitnesses were unworthy of
credit, and contradicted themselves and each other.
For this opposition to the will of Government, the
jurors were summoned to the Star Chamber in Dublin,
and heavily fined. The witnesses, Mac Art and
MacGriffin, being no longer useful, M^ere given up to
the vengeance of the law. They were hanged for
robbery at Kilkenny ; and, with their dying breath,
declared the innocence of the Byrnes.

" The ingenuity of Parsons and his accomplices was
not yet exhausted. The Byrnes presented themselves
before the court of King's Bench in Dublin, to answer
any charge that might be brought against them. No
prosecutor appeared ; and yet the Lord Chief Justice
refused to grant their discharge. During two years,
repeated orders were transmitted from England, direct-
ing that the Byrnes should be freed from further pro-
cess, and restored to their estates ; but the faction in
the castle evaded and disobeyed every mandate. At
length, on learning that the Duke of Richmond, the
generous patron of the persecuted Irishmen, was dead,
it was determined by Parsons to complete the de-
struction of the victims. He had before been baffled
by the integrity of a grand jury ; on this occasion he
took proper precautions to prevent a similar dis-
appointment. The bills were sent before the grand
jurors of Wicklow, the majority of whom had obtained
grants of the Byrne propertj^, and all were intimately
connected with the prosecutors. The evidence placed
before this impartial body was the depositions of four
criminals who Avere pardoned on condition of giving
evidence ; but even these wretches were not brought
in person before the jury. Their depositions were

CHAP. II.] PKOOFS, ETC. 129

taken in Irish by one of the prosecutors, and translated
by one of his creatures. These suspicious documents,
however, proved sufficient, and the bills were found !
" To procure additional evidence, it was necessary
to use expedients still more atrocious. xV number oi
persons vv^ere seized, and subjected to the mockery of
trial by martial law, though the regular courts were
sitting. The most horrid tortures were inflicted on
those who refused to accuse the Byrnes ; and some of
the most obstinate were punished with death. But
the firmness of the victims presented obstacles Avhich
were not overcome, before some virtuous Englishmen
represented the affair so strongly to the King that he
was shamed into interference. He sent over com-
missioners from England to investigate the entire
affair. The Byrnes were brought before them, and
honourably acquitted ; but Parsons had previously
contrived to obtain a grant of their estates by patent
and was permitted to keep them undisturbed." —
'Taylor's Hist, of the Civil Wcms in Ireland, vol. i. pp.
243-246 ; also Cartes Ormond, vol. i. p. 29 ; and
MSS. Stearne, Trin. Coll., Duhlia.

CHAPTER II.- PAPtT HI.

It may be useful, for the sake of distinctness, to give
a separate consideration to the enormous iniquity [)er-
petrated by James in the wholesale robbery of his
Irish subjects, beginning with the confiscation of six
entire counties in the province of Ulster. These
counties were for the greater part the estates of
O'Neill, Lord Tyrone ; and O'Donnell, Lord Tyrcon-
nell. The residue was principally held under them
by a title which was deemed by the natives perpetual.
A conspiracy was formed, falsely to accuse those
lords 01 high treason ; and so to ])rocure the forfei-
ture of their estates. Attempts were made by private
emissaries, to allure them into some treasonable pro-
jects, but in vain. They were upon their guard, and

I

130 OBSERVATIONS, jCHAP. II.

treated the tempters with neglect. Notwithstanding
this caution on their parts, preparations were made in
Dublin for their trial and execution. They had been
invited to Dublin in a friendly manner ; they had
come thither, expecting to be treated as friends. The
following passage from Doctor Anderson's Royal
Genealogies, p. 786, will afford the reader a graphic
description of the mode wherein these unfortunate
noblemen were circumvented : —

"Artful (Secretary) Cecil employed one St.
Lawrence to entrap the Earls of Tirone and Tjt-
connell, the Lord of Delvin, and other Irish chiefs,
into a sham plot, which had no evidence but his.
But those chiefs being informed that mtnesses were
to be hired against thenij foolishly fled from Dublin,
and so taking guilt upon them, they were declared
rebels, and six entire counties in IJister were at once
forfeited to the Crown, which was what their enemies
wanted."

The evidence upon which the charge of hi^'h treason
rests is singularly curious. It would seem incredible
that so gross a fraud should be deemed practicable ;
but it is placed beyond a doubt by Protestant his-
torians. It is thus stated by Jones, Protestant Bishop
of Meath, who, before his ordination, had held rank
in Cromwell's army. His account runs thus : —

"Anno 1607, there was a providential discovery of
another rebellion in Ireland, the Lord Chichester
being Deputy. The discoverer not being willing to
appear, a letter from him, not subscribed, was super-
scribed to Sir William Usher, Clerk of the Council,
and dropt in the council chamber then held in the
castle of Dublin ; in which was mentioned a design
for sieging the castle and nmrdering the Deputy;
with a general revolt, and dependence on Spanish
forces ; and this also for religion ; for particulars
whereof (adds the bishop) I refer to that letter,
dated March the 19th, imiJ'— Preface to Borlase's
History of the Irish Rebellion.

O'Neill and O'Donnell had the good sense not to

CHAP, il] proofs, etc. 131

abide the result of the trial. They fled to foreign
countries ; but the sordid rancour of the slobbering
monster, King James, followed them thither. He
robbed them of their property at home. He endea-
voured to rob them of character and synipathy abroad.
He distributed a proclamation against the earls,
which is so characteristic of the pedantic brute that
issued it, and of the spirit Avherein the English Go-
vernment invariably ruled ^Ireland, that I insert it
here at length : —

''^ By the King. — A proclamation, touching the
Earles of Tirone and Tirconnell.

" Seeing it is common and natural in all persons of
what condition soever to speak and judge variably of
all new and sudden accidents ; and that the flight of
the Earles of Tirone and Tirconnell, with some others
of their fellowes, out of the north partes of our realme
of Ireland, may haply prove a subject of like discourse:
wee have thought it not amiss to deliver some such
matter in publique as may better cleare men's judg-
ments concerning the same : not in respect of any
worth or value in these men's persons, being base and
rude in their originall, but to take away all such in-
conveniencies as may blemish the reputation of that
friendsliip which ought to be mutually observed
between us and other princes. For although it is not
unlikely that the report of their titles and dignities
may draw from princes and states some such courtesies
at their first coming abroad as are incident to men of
extraordinary rancke and qualitie; yet, when wee
have taken the best means wee can to lay them open
in every condition, we shall then expect from our
friends and neighbours all such just and noble pro-
ceedings as stand with the rules of honour and friend-
ship ; and from our subjects at home and abroad that
duety and obedience (in their carriage toward them)
which they owe to us by inseparable bonds and obli-
gations of nature and loyaltie, whereof wee intend to
take streight accompt. For which purpose wee doo
hereby first declare that these persons above-men-

135 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAF. li.

tionecl had not their creations or possessions in regard
of any lineall or Law^iill descent froni ancestors of
blood or virtue ; but were onely preferred by the late
Queen, our sister of famous memorie, and by ourselves
for some reasons of state, before others who for their
qualitie and birth (in those provinces where they
clwell) might better have challenged those honours
which were conferred upon them. Secondly, we doo
professe that it is both known to us and our counsell
here, and to our deputy and state there, and so shall
it appeare to the Avorld (as cleare as the sunne) by
evident proofes, that the onely ground and motive of
this high contempt in these men's departure, hath
beene the private knowledge and inward terror of
their own giiiltinesse : whereof, because wee heare that
they doe seeke to take away the blot and infamie, by
di\iilging that they have withdrawn themselves for
matter of religion (a cloake that serves too much in
these dales to cover many evill intentions), adding
also thereunto some other vaine pretexts of receiving
injustice when their rights and claims have come in
question betweene them and us, or any of our subjects
and them, wee thinke it not impertinent to say some-
what thereof.

" And therefore, although wee judge it needlessB to
seeke for many arguments to contirme whatsoever
shall be said of these men's corruption and falsehood
(whose hainous offences remaine so freshe in memorie,
since they declared themselves so very monsters in
nature as they did not only withdraw^ themselves from
their personal obedience to their sovereigne, but were
content to sell over their native countrey to those that
stood at that time in the highest termes of hostilitie
with the two crownes of Endand and Ireland), yet,
to make the absurditie and ingratitude of the allega-
tions above-mentioned, so much the more cleare to all
men of equall judgment, wee doo hereby professe in
the word of a kinge, that there never was so much as
any shadowe of molestation, nor purpose of proceed-
ing in any degree against them for matter concerning

CHAP. II.] PROOFS, ETC. 133

religion. Such being their condition and profession,
to thinke murder no fault, marriage of no use, nor
any_ man to be esteemed valiant that did not glorie in
rapine and oppression ; as wee should have thought it
an unreasonable thing to trouble them for any diffe-
rent point in religion, before any man could perceive
by their conversation that they made truely conscience
of any religion. So doo wee also for the second parte
of their excuse affirme, that (notwithstanding all that
they can claime must bee acknowledged to proceed
from meere grace upon their submission, after their
greate and unnaturall treasons) there hath never come
any question concerning their rights or possessions-,
wherein wee have not bene more inclinable to doe them
favour than to any of their competitours, except in
those cases wherein wee have plainly discerned that
their onely end was to have made themselves by
degrees more able than they now are to resist all law-
full authoritie (when they should return to their
vomit againe), by usurping a power over other good
subjects of ours that dwell among them, better borne
than they, and ufkerlie disclaiming from any depen-
dencie upon them.

" Having now dehvered thus much concerning these
men's estates and their proceedings, wee will onely
end with this conclusion, that they shal not be able
to denie whensoever they should dare to present them-
selves before the seate of justice that they have (before
the running out of our kingdome) not onely entered
into combination for stirring sedition and intestine
rebellion, but have directed divers instruments, as well
priests as others, to make offers to foreign states and
princes (if they had bene as readie to receive them) of
their readinesse and resolution to adhere to them
whensoever they should seeke to invade that king-
dome. Wherein, amongst other thinges, this is not
to be forgotten, that under the condition of being
made free from English government, they resolved
also to comprehend the utter extirpation of all those
subjects that are no we remaining alive within that

134 OBSEEVATIONS, [CHAP. II.

kingdome, formerly descended from the English race.
In which practices and propositions, followed and
fomented by priests and Jesuites (of whose function
in these times the practice and perswasion of subjects
to rebell -against their sovereigns is one speciall and
essentiall part and portion), as they have found no
such encouragement as they expected and have boasted
of ; so wee doe assure ourselves, that when this de-
claration shal bee seene and duely weighed with all
due circumstances, it will bee of force sufficient to
disperse and to discredit all such untrueths as these
contemptible creatures, so full of infidelity and in-
gratitude, shall disgorge against us, and our just and
moderate proceeding ; and shall procure unto them no
better usage than they would wish should bee afforded
to any such packe of rebells, borne their subjects, and
bound unto them in so many and so greate obligations.

" Given at our Palace of Westminster, the fifteenth
day of November, in the fifth yeere of our raigne of
Great Britaine, France, and Ireland. God save the
King."

It is curious that the only title tfiat James could
have had to the six counties in Ulster, was the for-
feiture arising from the attainder, for flight, of Tyrone
and TyrconneU. And yet his proclamation states
that they had no title whatever to the possessions
thus forfeited ! ! If they had no title, their attainder
could never have transferred a title to the King.
This was a blunder just suited to the capacity of such
a Solomon as James the First. But he was not guilty
of the practical blunder of taking his own pro-
clamation to be true, and admitting in practice that
the attainted O'Neill and O'Donnell had had no title
to their lands.

As to the attainder itself, it would have been dif-
ficult even in those days to establish it in a court of
law upon the only evidence of the earls' treason that
existed — namely, an anonymous letter dropped in the
council chamber in Dublin castle. However, to sup-
ply the deficiency, James resolved to have the Irish

CHAP. II.] PEOOFS, ETC. 135

chieftains attainted by an Act of Parliament. There
had not been a parliament held in Ireland from the
year 1587, until James called this parliament in 1613,
which was packed for the express purpose of attaint-
ing O'Neill and O'Donnell.

Sir John Davies is quite candid in stating the mo-
tive for Avliich former parliaments had been called in
Ireland, namely, to attaint different persons, so as to
obtain their lands. Davies even seeks to justify the
packing of the parliament of 1613, by what lawyers
delight in, namely, cases in point. These are his
words : —

" For what end was the parliament holden by Lord
Leonard Gray in the 28tli Henry VIII. but to attaint
the Giraldines, and to abolisli the usurped authority
of the Pope 1

" To what purpose did Thomas, Earl of Sussex, hold
his first parliament in the 3rd and 4th K. Philip and Q.
Mary, but to settle Leix and Offaley in the Crown 1

" What was the principal cause that Sir Henry
Sydney held a parliament in the 11th year of Queen
Elizabeth, but to extinguish the name of O'Neill, and
to entitle the Crown to the greatest part of Ulster 1

" And, lastly, what was the chief motive of the last
parliament holden by Sir John Perrot, but the at-
tainder of two great peers of this realm, the Viscount
Baltinglass and the Earl of Desmond, and for vesting
their lands, and the lands of their adlierents, in the
actual possession of the Crown V — Davies, p. 300.

What lawyer could resist the inevitable inference —
that as former parliaments had been called and held
for the mere purposes of plunder, so James must have
a clear right to call a parliament for the same laudable
object 1

There never was a crime of any kind committed
anywhere, that was not exceeded in the conduct of the
English Government towards Ireland !

The six counties sought to be forfeited were nearly
equal in extent to Yorkshire and Lancashire, and
were the richest and best cultivated part of Ireland.

136 OBSERVATIONS. [CHAP. II.

The giiilt of treason, as we have seen, was to be
proved npoii the authority of an anonymous letter —
found with no greater difficulty, as to place and man-
ner of discovery, than by picking it up from the floor
of the council chamber in the Viceroy's residence !
And then, in order to effectuate this gigantic robbery,
whereby the inhabitants of six counties were to be
despoiled of their all, and turned adrift houseless and
penniless, James, at one stroke of the pen, created
fourteen peers, who were to participate with other
dignitaries in the plunder, and instituted no less than
forty new boroughs, amongst the poorest villages and
hamlets in Ireland. Close boroughs they were, of
course ; the constituency in each not exceeding in
general twelve burgesses and a returning officer. And
when complaint was made to King James by a re-
monstrance signed by some of the principal men in
Ireland, liis answer was this : —

" You complain of fourteen false returns. Are
there not many more complained of in this parlia-
ment, yet they do not forsake the house for it ? . . . .

But you complain of the new boroughs What

is it to you A\'hether I make many or few boroughs 1
My council may consider the fitness, if I require it ;
but what if I had made forty noblemen and four
hundred borougks 1 The more the merrier, the fewer
the better cheer."

By an Irish statute then in force — namely, an Act
of the 23rd Henry VIII. — no person could represent
a county, city, or town in Ireland unless he were a
resident therein. This Act had not been repealed,
but it was in this instance trodden under foot and dis-
regarded. The Irish Lords became alarmed. They
immediately petitioned James ; and for their sole an-
swer, their agents, Talbot and Luttrel, were sent —
the one to the Tower, the other to the Fleet, and kept
long in custody ! Yet their complaints were indeed
reasonable, as the reader will see from the following
extract from Leland ; who records that the Irish
Lords stated the existence of —

CHAP. II.] PROOFS, ETC. 137

" A fearful suspicion that the project of erecting so
many corporations in places which can scantly pass
the rank of the poorest villages in the poorest country
in Christendom, do tend to nought else at this time,
but that, by the voices of a few, selected for the pur-
pose, under the name of burgesses, extreme penal laws
should be imposed upon your subjects here." — Leland,
Book iv. chap. 7.

Again, let us learn from Leland the sort of repre-
sentatives chosen for these boroughs : —

" The recusant Lords and Commons of the Pale
despatched letters to the King and the English Coun-
cil, urging the grievance of the new boroughs, incor-
porated with such shameful partiality, and represented
by attorneys' clerks and servants of the Lord Deputy,
and the violence done to Everard, chosen Speaker by
a majority of undoubted representatives, imploring to
be heard by their agents, and renouncing the royal
favour should they fail in point of proof." — Leland,
Book iv. chap. 7.

The manner wherein the Speaker, Everard, was
deprived of his right to preside in the House of Com-
mons, is curious ; and the whole scene is quite charac-
teristic of the times. It should be recollected that
the six counties of Ulster were the great prize to be
played for in this parliament. Leland, with all his
prejudices, admits that Everard was chosen Speaker
by a majority of undoubted representatives. It was,
however, too great an object to have a Speaker devoted
to the plunderers, for the government party to hesitate
at the commission of any fraud or violence. The fol-
lowing extract wdll amuse as well as instruct : —

Election of Speaker. 1613. — " There were two elec-
tions, viz., those of the recusant sect had chosen Sir
John Everard, Knight, for their Speaker, and there-
fore would in no wise accept of Sir John Davies ; and
in this division grew an uncertainty who had most
voices ; Avhereupon Sir John Davies, with all those of
the protestancy, went out to be numbered, and before
they came in again, those of the recusancy had shut

138 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. II.

the door, and had set Sir John Everard in the chair
of the Speaker ; but when the Protestants saw that,
they pulled Sir John Everard out of the chair, and
held Sir John Davies therein ; and thus, with great
contention, the second and third days (of the session)
were spent ; but the recusants prevailed not therein ;
for Sir John Davies v/as maintained in the place.
Then did they recusants of both houses of parlianicnt
withdraw themselves, and resorted not triither any
more, notwithstanding that they were often sent for
by the Lord Deputy." — Desider. Curios. Hihern. vol. i.
p. 168 ; see also Leland, Book iv. chap. 7.

" A band of armed soldiers, with lighted matchcfi
in their hands, stood at the entrance of the house,
to embolden the Protestant party." — Curvjj, 79.

Complaint was vain , and although the flagrant
illegality of the returns of a number of the Englislj
party was confessed, yet it appears from Lord Mount-
morris's instructive history of the Irish parliament.,
that they were all allowed to sit ; though the defect oi
their title to be members was admitted by a resolu-
tion of the house itself. I subjoin Lord Mountmor
ris's evidence in proof of this fact : —

"November 19th, 1613, it was resolved by the
House of Commons — That whereas some persons have
been unduly elected, some being judges, some for not
being estated in their boroughs, some for being out-
lawed, excommunicated, and lastly, for being returned
for places whose charters were not valid ; it was
resolved not to question them for the present, in
order to prevent stopping public business ; but this
resolution was not to be draAvn into precedent." —
Mountmorris, i. 169.

In such a parliament as this — with the real repre-
sentatives rejected, and the ficticious ones retained —
statutes were of course passed, giving the entire fee-
simple^ of the six counties to the Crown ; and this
spoliation — a robbery unparalleled in the annals of
any other country — was justified in a set speech by
Sir John Davies ; a speech in which he afforded a

CHAP. IL] proofs, etc. 139

painful contrast between the rapacity and iniquitous
plunder of the English, with that love of " equal and
impartial justice" which he himself acknowledged
was the permanent disposition of the Irish people. I
shall cite two passages from his discourse. The first
is characteristic of the Speaker's mendacious servility
— perhaps it is right to call it lying flattery of a dis-
gusting kind. He begins thus : he said —

" That he was glad that this occasion was offered of
declaring and setting forth his majesty's just title, as
well for his majesty's honour (who, being the most
just prince living, would not dispossess the meanest
of his subjects wrongfully, to gain many such king-
doms) as for the satisfaction of the natives them-
selves, and of all the world ; for his majesty's right,
it shall appear," said he, "that his majesty may and
ought to dispose of these lands in such manner as he
hath done, and is about to do, in law, conscience, and
in honour."

But the great object of the discourse was to justify,
not so much the seizure of the lands in the actual
possession of the attainted earls, or of the chief rents
payable to them, as the estates of their tenants, which
in general were perpetuities. These tenants were
implicated in no treason — were subject to no at-
tainder— were guilty of no crime ! Yet, upon the
paltry calumnies set forth by Sir John Davies in the
following extract, the inhabitants of six counties were
plundered of their properties, and turned penniless
beggars upon the world ! And to render this ineffable
iniquity still more revolting, it is justified beneath a
plea of " conscience " !

English " conscience" ! ! !

" And as these men," says Sir John, " had no cer-
tain estates of inheritance, so did they never till now
claim any such estate, nor conceive that their lawful
heirs should inherit the land which they possessed :
which is manifest by two arguments :

" 1. They never esteemed lawful matrimony, to the
end they might have lawful heirs !

140 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. IT.

"2. They never did build any houses, nor plant
orchards or gardens, nor take any care of their poste-
rities.

" If these men had no estates in law, either in their
main chief ries or in their inferior tenancies, it follow-
eth, that if his majesty, who is the undoubted lord
paramount, do seize and dispose of these lands, they
can make no title against his^najesty or his patentees,
and consequently cannot be admitted to traverse any
office of those lands ; for without showing a title no
man can be admitted to traverse an ofiice.

" Thus, then, it appears, that as well by the Irish
custom as the law of England, his majesty may, at
his pleasure, seize these lands and dispose thereof.
The only scruple which remains consists in this point :
whether the King may, in conscience or honour, re-
move the ancient tenants, and bring in strangers
among them.

" TruJy his majesty may not only take this course
lawfully, but he is bound in conscience so to do.

" For, being the undoubted rightful King of this
realm, so as the people and land are committed by the
Divine Majesty to his charge and government, his
majesty is bound in conscience to use all lawful and
just courses to reduce his people from barbarism to
civility ; the neglect whereof heretofore hath been
laid as an imputation upon the Crown of England.
Now, civility cannot possibly be planted among them
but by this mixed plantation of civil men, which like-
wise could not be "without removal and transplanta-
tion of some of the natives and settling of their
possessions in a course of common law • for if them-
selves were suffered to possess the whole country, as
their septs have done for many hundreds of years

East, they would never to the end of the world build
ouses, make townships or villages, or manure or
improve the land as it ought to be. Therefore it stands
neither with Christian policy nor conscience, to suffer
so good and fruitful a country to lie waste like a
wilderness, when his majesty may lawfully dispose

CHAP, 11.] PKOOFS, ET;'. 141

it to such persons as will make a civil plantation
therein."

There is a melancholy amusement in seeing the
manner in which Davies gravely acquits the King's
conscience from the robbery, by proving that the Irish
were all the better for being robbed ! — a mode of
reasoning which he certainly would prefer to have
practically applied to any other person than to him-
self. He concludes thus : —

" Again, his majesty may take this course in con-
science, because it tendeth to the good of the inhabi-
tants in many ways ; for half their land doth now lie
waste, by reason whereof that which is inhabited is
not improved to half the value ; but when the under-
takers are planted among them (there being place and
scope enough both for them and the natives), and that
all the land shall be fully .stocked and manured, 500
acres will be of better value than 5,000 are now !
Besides, where their estates were before uncertain
and transitory, so as their heirs did never inherit, they
shall now have certain estates of inheritance, the
portion allotted unto them, which they and their
children after them shall enj oy with security.

" Lastly, this transplantation of the natives is
made by his majesty, rather like a father than a lord or
a monarch ! The Romans transplanted whole nations
out of Germany into France ; the Spaniards lately
removed all the Moors out of Grenada into Barbarj^,
A\ itliout providing them any new seats there :
when the English Pale was first planted, all the
natives w^ere clearly expelled, so as not one Irish
family had so much as one acre of freehold in all the
five counties of the Pale ; and now, within these four
years past, the Grjemes were removed from the bor-
ders of Scotland to this kingdom, and had not one
foot of land allotted to them here ; but these natives
of Cavan have competent portions of land assigned to
them, many of them in the same barony where they
dwelt before ; and such as are removed, are planted
in the same county ; so as his majesty doth in this

142 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. TI.

imitate the skilful husbandman, who doth remove
his fruit-trees, not with a purpose to extirpate and
destroy them, but that they may bring better and
sweeter fruit after the transplantation." — Davies, 276.

Such were the arguments whereby a willing parlia-
ment was easily persuaded to pass a law vesting in
the Crown the entire land of six counties, the property
of the innocent tenants, and of the timid and there-
fore self -banished earls. James immediately set about
distributing upwards of three hundred and eighty-
five thousand acres."^ There were three divisions
made of the spoils : —

First, to English and Scotch, who were to plant their
proportions of English and Scotch tenants.

Secondly, to servitors in Ireland, that is, to persons
employed under Government, who might take English
or Irish tenants at their choice.

Thirdly, to the natives of those counties who were
to be freeholders.

But persons of Irish descent, who were called and
known as " mere Irish," were not to be permitted to
reside upon the lands at all ; nor were any Catho-
lics to be so permitted— that is, no person could be
allowed to occupy any of the lands who had not
taken the oath of supremacy.

This was called the Plantation of Ulster -, and to
show the spirit in which it was made, I give the
foUoAving " Articles," extracted from the Orders and
Conditions of the Plantations of Ulster : —

" 7. The said undertakers, their heirs and assigns,
shall not alien or demise their portions, or any part
thereof, to the mere Irish, or to such persons as will
not take the oath which the said undertakers are
bound to take by the former article ; and to that end,
a proviso shall be inserted in their letters-patent."

" 10. The said undertakers shall not alien their
portions durin.o' five years next after the date of their
letters-patent, but in this manner, viz., one- third part

•* Leland, book iv chap. 8.

CHAP. II.] PROOFS, ETC. 143

in fee-farm ; another third part for forty years or
under ; reserving to themselves the other third part
withont alienation during the said five years. But
after the said five years, they shall be at liberty to
alien to all persons except the mere Irish, and such
persons as will not take the oath which the said
undertakers are to take as aforesaid." — Harris's
Hiberiiica, p. 06.

Articles Concerning tlie Servitors. — " They shall
take the oath of supremacy, and be conformable in
religion as the former undertakers.

" 9. They shall not alien their portions, or any part
thereof, to the mere Irish, or to any such person or
persons as will not take the like oath as the said
undertakers were wont to take aforesaid ; and to that
end a proviso shall be inserted in their letters-
patent." — Harris's Hihernica, p. 65.

" The documents we have thus cited give but a faint
idea of the extreme misery created by the plunder of
the six counties. It will be easily believed that the
administration of the law was quite consistent with
the temper of the times ; exhibiting, and indeed en-
forcing, the most glaring partiality and injustice.
Take the following testimony respecting the eccle-
siastical courts, from no less an authority than Bishop
Burnett : —

_" They were." says Bishop Burnett, in his life of
Bishop Bedel], " often managed by a chancellor that
bought his place, and so thought he had a right to
all the profits he could make out of it, and their
whole business seemed to be nothing but oppression
and extortion ; the solemnest, the sacredest of all
church censures, which was excommunication, went
about in so sordid and base a manner, that all regard
to it, as it was a spiritual censure, was lost, ancTthe
effect it had in law made it be cried out upon as a
most intolerable piece of tyranny. The officers of the
court thought they had a sort of right to oppress the
natives ; and that all was well got that was wrung
from them."

144 OBSERVATIONS, [CIIAP. II.

Yet tliese courts proceeded to excommunicate the
Catholics for " recusancy ;" and where they did not
extort bribes for their forbearance, they punished by
imprisonment. I give a specimen, affecting some of
the more favoured of the persecuted class : —

"It appears that at the end of this session (1615),
eight Roman Catholics, who had been excommuni-
cated by the Archbishop of Dublin for recusancy, and
imprisoned, were released by the indulgence of parlia-
ment (some said by the mediation of bribes), but
their joy on that_ account was short-lived, and their
release rather an illusion and an aggravation of their
punishment ; for without any crime but perseverance
in their religion, the same archbishop soon after ex-
communicated them a second time ; on which they
were again sent back to their long and loathsome
confinement." — Analect. Sacra. Rives, in Analect. p. 34.

The Catholic clergy were still worse treated : here
are some specimens : —

" Cnohor O'Duana, bishop of Down and Connor,
was apprehended in July, 1612, and committed to the
castle of Dublin, wherein he lived in continual restraint
many years ; but having at last escaped out of prison,
and having afterwards been taken, he was hanged,
drawn, and quartered, on the 1st of February.^' —
Theatre of Cath. and Prot. llel. p. 578.

" The chaplain of this bishop, Bryan Carrulan,
John O'Onan, Donoghoe M'Reddy, and John Luneas,
I^riests, suffered also in Ireland in this reign." — Ibid.
p. 586.

Take a few specimens also — a savour of the quality
of the criminal courts, and of the inode in which
cases on behalf of the Crown were rendered success-
ful, no matter how deficient the evidence — no matter
how strong the case of the defendant. The ordinary
modes of procuring partial jurors Avere of course re-
sorted to. But with jurors who had anything like a
conscience, harsher measures were x>ursued. \\q find
that they were not only imprisoned and fined, but that
some of them had their ears cut off. The fact was

CHAP. II.] FROOFS, ETC. 145

stated in an address of remonstrance to the Crown,
and was not, as it could not be, contradicted.

The remonstrance of the Irish nobility and gentiy
at that period sets forth —

" That, in the trial of criminal causes and men's
lives (which the law doth much favour), the jurors
were ordinarily threatened, by his majesty's counsel
at law, to be brought into the star-chamber, inso-
muchthat it was great danger for any innocent man,
if he was accused upon malice or light ground of
suspicion ; because the jurors, being terrified through
fear of imprisonment, loss of ears and of their goods,
might condemn him." — Desider. Curios. Hibern.
p. 244.

Let it not be supposed that T exaggerate ; the fact is
admitted by the very parties themselves to the crime.
Lord Deputy Chichester confesses —

" That the justice of assize (1613), for the space of
two or three years past, had bound over divers juries
to the star-chamber, for their refusing to present recu-
sants upon the testimony of the witnesses, that they
come not to church according to the law. All which
jurors have been punished in the star-chamber by fine
and imprisonment."

Chichester adds —

" It is true that these jurors censured in the star-
chamber had no counsel allowed them." — Desider.
Curios. Hibern. vol. i. p. 2(53.

Of course conscientious jurors did refuse to attend,
and left the cases to the profligate partisans of the
Crown : —

" Most of the jurors did rather choose to endure
the penalty or loss of issues than to appear on juries,
the course held with them was so strict and severe." —
Desider. Carlos. Hibern. vol. i. p. 244.

" The star-chamber," says Chichester, " is the pro-
per court to punish jurors that wall not find for the
King upon good evidence." — Desider. Curios. Hibern.
vol. i. p. 262.

He would have been a hardy libeller indeed who at
that period should have dared to assert that the Crown

K

146 OBSEEVATIONS, [CHAP. IL

sver went to trial in any case without "good evidence."
But mark ! tliere was no penalty or punishment for
finding against the best and most conclusive evidence
when tendered on behalf of the defendant.

It is a melancholy reflection, that the Crown prose-
cutor in Ireland can, whenever he pleases, pack his
jury at the present day with as great a certainty of
procuring a verdict on the " good evidence " of the
Crown, as his predecessor in the reign of the first
James could have done. There is indeed one amelio-
ration in our days —the ears of the jurors can no longer
be cut off.

The success of James in the spoliation of the pro-
perty of the inhabitants of the six counties of Ulster,
only whetted his appetite and that of his courtiers
for more plunder. They turned their eyes upon the
province of Connaught, and determined upon a simi-
lar scheme of robbery. They affected a great zeal for
reforming abuses in particular localities. They soon
extended their views to entire provinces — the fol-
lowing will show with what iniquity and what suc-
cess. I take the statement from Leland. It relates
to the first proceedings under the " Commission of
Defective Titles :"—

"Another device of these reformers affected the
inhabitants of an entire province. The lords and
gentlemen of Connaught, including the county of
Clare, on their composition made with Sir John
Perrot in the reign of Elizabeth, had indeed surren-
dered their estates to the Crown, but had generally
neglected to enroll their surrenders and to take out
their letters-patent This defect was supplied by
King James, who, in his 13th year, issued a commission
to receive surrenders of their estates ; which he re-
conveyed, by new patents, to them and their heirs, to
ve holden of the Crown by knight's service, as of the
castle of Athlone. Their surrenders were made, their
patents received the great seal ; but, by neglect of the
officers, neither was enrolled in Chancery, although
three thousand pounds had been disbursed for the

CHAP. II. j PEOOFS, ETC. 147

enrolment. ^ Advantage was now taken of this invo-
luntary omission. Their titles w^ere pronounced defec-
tive, and their lands adjudged to be still vested in the
Crown. The project recommended to the King was
nothing- less than that of establishing an extensive
plantation in the province of Connaught, similar to
that of Ulster ; and in his rage of reformation it was
most favourably received." — Leland, book iv. chap. 8.

The alarmed proprietors sought to avert the threa-
tened confiscation by tendering the composition of a
heavy fine and doubling their annual rents ; James
listened to their proposition ; but the treaty was in-
terrupted by his majesty's death, in 1625.

The ensuing reign is the one in which the Commis-
sion of Defective Titles figured with the greatest
atrocity.^ For the present I shall content myself with
one extract more, descriptive of the mode in which
the commissioners exerted their authority : it will be
found that they had so far impartiality in their con-
duct, that they did not confine their plunderings to
Catholic property. Defenceless Protestants were liable
in the remote countries to equal spoliation. This is
proved by Lelancl : —

" In other districts, the planters had not only ne-
glected to perform their covenants, but the commis-
sioners appointed to distribute the lands scandalously
abused their trusts, and by fraud or violence deprived
the natives of those possessions which the King had
reserved for them. Some, indeed, were suffered to
enjoy a small pittance of such reservation : others
were totally ejected. In the manuscripts or Bishoi)
Stearne we find, that, in the small county of Longford,
twenty-five of one sept were all deprived of their
estates without the least compensation, or any means
of subsistence assigned to them. The resentment of
such sufferers was in some cases exasperated by find-
ing their lands transferred to hungry adventurers,
who had no services to plead, and sometimes to those
who had been rebels and traitors. Neither the actors
nor the objects of such, grievances were confined to

118 OBSERVATIONS, [cHAP. III.

one religion. The most zealous in the service of Go-
vernment, and the most peaceable conformists, were
involved in the ravages of avarice and rapine, withoii*-
any distinction of principles or professions. The inte
rested assiduity of the King's creatures in scrutinizing
the titles to those lands which had not yet been found
or acknowledged to belong to the Crown, was, if pos-
sible, still more detestable." — Leland, book iv. chap. 8.

I conclude the collection of testimonies showing
the crimes committed on the Irish in the reign of
James, by the following short summary taken from
Leland : —

" Extortions and oppressions of the soldiers in va-
rious excursions from their quarters, for levying the
King's rents, or supporting the civil power ; a rigorous
and tyrannical execution of martial law in time of
peace ; a dangerous and unconstitutional power as-
sumed by the privy council in deciding causes deter-
minable by common law ; their severe treatment of
mtnesses and jurors in the castle-chamber, whose evi-
dence or verdicts had been displeasing to the State; the
grievous exactions of the established clergy for the
occasional duties of their function ; and the severity
of the ecclesiastical courts." — Leland, book iv. chap. 8.

CHAPTER III.— PART I.

Years 1625—1660.

It is now my purpose to illustrate the reign of
Charles the First, and the dominion of the blood-
stained Cromwell. Language totally fails to describe
the crimes of this period.

The Irish had a respite on the death of James I.
It was hoped that the Commission of Defective Titles
would not be renewed. The hope was vain ; the ex-
pectation nugatory. I am not disposed to speak un-
favourably of the personal disposition of Charles the
First, but he was impelled by circumstances to act a
part, which probably, or at least possibly, was diffe-

CHAP. III.J PROOFS, ETC. 149

rent from what he would heave been inclined to act.
I do not mean, however, to vindicate him. He parti-
cipated too deeply in the crimes of his agents and
ministers, to afford any substantial palliation of the
guilt of his criminal reign.

It is most material to keep in mind that while the
spirit of disaffection to the reigning monarch w^as
daily becoming more rife in England, and while every
means were taken to thwart his purposes and to bring
him into subjection, the Catholic people of Ireland
exhibited the most zealous and generous loyalty. The
knowledge of this fact will give added poignancy to
the base cruelty by which the spoliation of their pro-
perty by the enemies of Charles — the Cromwellians —
was afterwards sanctioned and confirmed by Charles's
sons — Charles II. and James II. I leave upon record
the two following extracts : —

"The condition of the King's affixirs (in 162G)
was much perplexed in England. He was at war
with the two most powerful kings in Europe, ''and his
subjects in the English parliament would afford liini
little or no assistance but on hard and dishonourable
terms, though they had engaged him in the first war ;
and seemed glad of the last, it being in defence of
religion." — Sir Edw. Wallri^'s Dif^courses, fol. 337.

Whilst his majesty's affairs were thus perplexed in
England —

'' The Roman Catholics of Ireland offered constantly
to pay an army of five thousand foot and five hun-
dred horse, for liis majesty's service, provided they
might be tolerated in the exercise of their religion." —
Ihid.

It, however, having become known that the Irish
were thus about to olDtain toleration for the exercise
of their religion, the bigotry of the celebrated Arch-
bishop Ussher became alarmed. He called together
an assemblage of the bishops, wdio agreed with him
in a declaration, in wliich they proclaimed toleration
to be a sin of the first magnitude. It is fit that we
preserve, for the execration of the wise and the good,

150 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAi'. 111.

the declaration of these Protestant bishops, contain-
ing their Protestant reasons for refusing to tolerate
the members of the older Church. They are these : —
" November, 1626. — Firstly, The religion of the
papists is superstitious and idolatrous ; their faith and
doctrine erroneous and heretical : their church, in re-
spect of both, apostatical. To give them, therefore, a
toleration, or to consent that they may freely exercise
their religion, and profess their faith and doctrine, is
a grievous sin, and that in two respects ; for, first, it
is to make ourselves accessary not only to their super-
stitions, idolatries, and heresies, and, in a word, to all
the abominations of popery ; but also (which is a con-
dition of the former) to the perdition of the seduced
people which perish in the deluge of the Catholic
apostacy.

" Secondly — To grant them a toleration, in respect
of any money to be given or contribution to be made
by then^ is to set religion to sale, and with it the
souls of the people whom Christ hath redeemed with
his blood. And as it is a great sin, so it is also a mat-
ter of most dangerous consequence,^ the consideration
whereof we commit to the mse and judicious, beseech-
ing the God of truth to make them who are in autho-
rity zealous of God's glory, and of the advancement
of true religion, zealous, resolute, and courageous,
against all popery, superstition, and idolatry."

The Irish Catholics, however, persevered. They
resolved to contribute to the extent of their power to
relieve the royal necessities ; and they agreed to ad-
vance the enormous sum (for those times) of £120,000,
upon the easy terms that certain concessions of the
most plain and obvious justice should be made by the
Crown. These " graces " were granted under the
King's own hand. The following is the abstract of
these " graces," as accurately specified by Lingard : —
" By these graces, in addition to the removal of
many minor grievances, it was provided that the recu-
sants should be allowed to practise in the courts of
law, and to sue the livery of their lands out of the

CHAP. III.] PROOFS, ETC. 151

Court of Wards, on taking an oatli of civil allegiance
in lien of the oatli of supremacy : that the under-
takers in the several plantations should have time
allowed them to fulfil the conditions of their leases ;
that the claims of the Crown should be confined to
the last sixty years ; that the inhabitants of Con-
naught should be permitted to make a new enrolment
of their estates : and that a parliament should be
holden to confirm these graces, and to establish every
man in the undisturbed possession of his lands." —
LingarcVs England., Reign of Charles /., chap. 1.

It will be important to keep in recollection this
composition or purchase-inoney, especially in relation
to the proceedings under the Commission for Defec-
tive Titles. Because, if there really had been any
substantial defect in the title of the inhabitants, par-
ticularly of Connaught it lay within the prerogative
of the Crown — and in point of justice the Crown was
bound — gratuitously to release defects, whether caused
by the negligence of its public officers, or which might
have accidentally occurred. But it was still a stronger
case when the Crown agreed to release these defects,
and to confirm the titles, on obtaining the payment of
so large a sum of money. It was unjust to seek to
disturb those titles at all. But, as the injustice of
British government towards Ireland constantly redu-
plicates, it was doubly and most iniquitously unjust
to seek to disturb those titles after the payment of so
large a sum of money for a perpetual release.

It is said that one-third of the money was paid by
Protestants, and that the Catholics paid only two-
thirds. Even if the fact were so, it makes no differ-
ence ; because the estates of the Protestants who con-
tributed were liable to the same nominal " defect "
with those of the Catholics.

The base iniquity of receiving the money for the
" graces," and of afterwards violating the promise to
concede those graces, is still farther enhanced by the
proceedings of Strafford, with relation to an Irish
parliament called shortly after. He opened that par-

152 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. III.

lianient with a speech from the throne, in which he
deliberately stated the falsehood so often avowed in
his^ correspondence, namely, that if a free and uncon-
ditional grant of supplies were made to the King, the
" graces " (including security of title to their estates)
would certainly be conceded. He treated all doubt
upon that subject as debasing. He closed with this
phrase : —

" Surely so great a meanness cannot enter your
hearts, as once to suspect his majesty's gracious re-
gards of you and performance with you, where you
affie yourselves upon his grace." — St7'afford's State
Letters, vol. i. p. 223.

The supplies were accordingly moved for on the
following day ; and six entire subsidies were unani-
mously voted to his majesty, payable in four years ;
and these subsidies far exceeded his expectation. Straf-
ford says himself —

" Each of these subsidies amounted to <£50,000, and
I never propounded more to the King than £30,000.
So that the subsidies raised in this first, were more
than I proposed to be had in both sessions ; and were
freely given and without any contradiction." — Ihid.
273.

Thus the Irish — and especially the Catholic Irish —
in order to obtain the confirmation of their titles to
their estates against an objection in its own nature
frivolous and unjust — had, in 1628, agreed to pay, and
actually paid £120,000 ; and in 1634 the parliament I
have spoken of granted (on the faith of the Lord
Deputy's most emphatic promise that the graces
should be immediately conceded) supplies nearly
doubling in amount the most sanguine expectations
of the griping Lord Deputy.

Is it credible, that all this time this very Lord
Deputy had determined that the graces should not be
granted % that the act of justice, which ought to have
been done gratuitously, should not be done at all %
that the people's money should be obtained under a
false pretence, and no value given 1 tliat the plighted

CHAP. III.] PROOFS, ETC. 153

honour — the honour of Protestant England — should
be pledged to Catholic Ireland, and should be pledged
only to exhibit another instance of shameless knavery,
another most disgraceful breach of public faith]

Why, in its own nature it is incredible. Yet, it is
literally tnie. And it is proved by no less evidence
than the letter of that lord deputy himself. The
letter is dated the 16th August, 1634, and is addressed
to Secretary Coke at London.

The House of Commons had, in pursuance of the
compact, voted the supplies, and then pressed for the
graces ; and particularly for a statute to limit the
claims of the Crown to 60 years. This is the passage
out of the above-mentioned letter, to which I implore
the attention of every reader : —

" Both houses have, during this sitting, likewise ex-
tremely pressed for the graces, especially the law in
England for threescore years' possession, to conclude
the rights of the Cro^vn : and in the lower house none
so earnest as Fingal and Kanelagh, urging Ms majesty's
promise at every turn.

" The Commons' House have named a committee to
attend the Chancellor, the Chief Justice of the Com-
mon Pleas, the Chief Baron, Master of the RoUs, and
Sir George Radcliffe, appointed by me to make ready
all good and fit laws to be transmitted against our
next meeting, which is, by God's grace, to be the 4th
of November, which they do incessantly, calling for
the graces, and in especially that law of threescore
years.

" So as considering that many of these graces are
by no means to pass into laws, and not foreseeing
w^hat inconvenience might fall upon his majesty if
these pressures were sufi'ered to go on too far, I con-
sulted these two judges and Sir George Piadcliffe how
we might incline the board to give them the negative
answer, and take it off the King, which on Thursday
last I effected, being, in good faith, very excellently
assisted at the table by them all three ; so as now we
tare resolved, not only privately to transmit our humble

154 OBSEEVATIONS, [CHAP. IIT.

advices upon every article of the graces, but on Tues-
day next to call this committee of the Commons before
us, and plainly tell them that we may not, with our
faith to our master, give way to the transmitting of
this law of threescore years, or any other of the graces
prejudicial to the Crown ; nay, must humbly beseech
his majesty they may not be introduced to the preju-
dice of his royal rights, and clearly represent unto the
King that he is not bound, either in justice, honour,
or conscience, to grant them. And so putting in our-
selves mean betwixt them and his majesty's pretended
engagements, take the hard part wholly from his
majesty, and bear it ourselves as well as we may." —
Straff orcl i. 279, 280.

It may be supposed that Charles was no party to
this villanous duplicity. Alas! alas! for poor human
nature ! And, alas ! for royal nature, too ! Pause, and
read his reply. He thus writes to Strafford : —

" Wentworth — Before I answer any of your parti-
cular letters to me, I must tell you that your last
public despatch has given me a great deal of content-
ment ; and especially for keeping off the envy
(odium) of a necessary negative from me of those
unreasonable graces that people expected from me." —
Straff'orcVs State Letters, i. 331.

Both these men lost their heads upon the scaffold.
Strafford was a consummate political villain. Charles
was spoiled by his education and his advisers. But
Ireland suffered without any compensation, from the
deliberate villany of the one, and the regal treachery
of the other.

Wentworth having, by this villanous treachery,
plundered the Irish people of more money than he
had expected to get, immediately commenced his plan
of confiscation. It Avas a magnificent wholesale plan,
to confiscate the property of the inhabitants of the
three remaining provinces. We have seen how James
effected the plunder of Ulster. Wentworth began
with Connaught. Leland describes his project in the
following words : —

CHAP. IIL] PEOOFS, ETC. 155

_ " His project was nothing less than to subvert the
title to every estate in every part of Connaught, and
to establish a new plantation through this whole pro-
vince ; a project which, when first proposed in the
late reign, Avas received with horror and amazement,
but which suited the undismayed and enterprising
genius of Lord Wentworth. For this he had opposed
the confirmation of the royal graces, and taken to him-
self the odium of so flagrant a violation of the royal
promise. The parliament was at an end, and the
deputy at leisure to execute a scheme, which, as it
was offensive and alarming, required a cautious and
deliberate pi^ocedure. Old records of state, and the
memorials of ancient monasteries, were ransacked to
ascertain the King's original title to Connaught. It
was soon discovered that, in the grant of Henry III.
to Richard de Burgo, five cantreds were reserved to
the Crown adjacent to the castle of Athlone ; that
this grant included the whole remainder of the pro-
vince, which was now alleged to have been forfeited
by Aedh O'Connor, the Irish provincial chieftain ;
that the lands and lordship of De Burgo descended
lineally to Edward the Fourth, and were confirmed to
the Crown by a statute of Henry the Seventh. The
ingenuity of court lawyers was employed to invaUdate
all patents granted to the possessors of these lands,
from the reign of Queen Elizabeth." — Leland, hook iv.
chap, 1.

Strafford commenced with the county of Roscom-
mon. It will be recoUected that the practice of fining
jurors for finding a verdict unpleasing to the Crown,
was fully established in Ireland. This will make the
next extract perfectly intelligible. It is an extract
from a despatch addressed by Strafford to the Eng-
lish Secretary, and relates to the county of Roscom-
mon, Avith which Strafford had begun : —

" Before my coming from Dublin I had given order
that the gentlemen of the best estates and understand-
ings should be returned, which was done accordingly,
as you will find by their names. My reason was, that

156 OESEEVATION.-, [CHAP. III.

tliis being a leading case for the whole province, it
would set a great value, in their estimation, upon the
goodness of the King's title, being found by persons
of their qualities, and as much concerned in their own
particulars as any other. Again, finding the evidence
so strong, as, unless they went against it, the" must
pass for the King, I resolved to have persons of such
means as might answer the King a round fine in the
castle chamber, in case they should prevaricate, who,
in all seeming, even out of that reason, would be more
fearful to tread shamefully and impudently aside from
the truth, than such as had less or nothing to lose." —
Strafford, i. 442.

I extract the next passage as especially exhibiting
the subsequent conduct of Straftord towards the coun-
sel employed upon this occasion : —

" Having thus prepared the matter ... I sent for
half a dozen of the principal gentlemen among them,
and in the presence of the commissioners desired them
that they would acquaint the rest of the country
that the end of our coming was the next day to exe-
cute his majesty's commission for finding a clear and
undoubted title in the Crown to the province of Con-
naught, purposing to begin first with the county of
Roscommon. Wherein, nevertheless, to manifest his
majesty's justice and honour, I thought fit to let them
know it was his majesty^s gracious pleasure, any man's
counsel should be fully and willingly heard in the
defence of their respective rights, being a favour
never before afi'orded to any upon taking of these
kind of inquisitions." — Ibid.

The trial proceeded ; and, as if to make it a com-
plete mockery of justice, it concluded with a speech
from Strafford, of which I shall give the commence-
ment and conclusion. The scene is unparalleled in the
history of any other country : —

"So presently," says Strafford, "we went to the
place appointed, read the commission, called and
swore the jury, and so on with our work. . . . The
counsel on both sides having said all they would, 1

CilAP. III.] PROOFS. ETC. 157

told the jury, the first movers of his majesty to look
into this his undoubted title, were the princely
desires he hath to effect them a civil and rich people ;
which cannot by any so sure and ready means be
attained as by a plantation, which, therefore, in his
great msdom he had resolved."

Strafford gives us the conclusion of his speech as
follows. He tells the jury that "if they would be
inclined to truth, and do best for themselves, they
were undoubtedly to find the title for the King. If
they were passionately resolved to go over all bounds
to their own will, and without respects at all to their
own good, to do that which were simply best for his
majesty, then I should advise them, roughly and
pertinaciously, to deny to find any title at all. And
there I left them to chant together (as they call it)
over their evidence.

" The next day they found the King's title without
scruple or hesitation." — Strafford, i. 442, 443.

And the jurors were wise who did so ; for Straf-
ford exceeded his predecessor Chichester in cruelty to
nonconforming jurors. His custom in that particular
is thus authenticated by the records of the House of
Commons. They tell us —

" That jurors who gave their verdict according to
their consciences, were censured in the castle chamber
in great fines : sometimes pilloried with loss of ears,
and bored through the tongue, and sometimes marked
in the forehead with a hot iron, and other infamous
punishments." — Commons^ Journals, vol. i. p. 307.

From the same despatch of the 14th July, 1635, 1
take the following extract : —

" In aU this business I have been very well assisted
by Sir Gerard Lowther, Chief Justice of the Common
Pleas, so as I crave leave to recommend him to his
majesty and my lords as a passing able and well-
affected servant of the Crown ; Mr. Serjeant Catelin
hath performed his part also very excellently well ;
nor must I forget Sir Lucas Dillon, the foreman of
the jury, who hath behaved himself with so much dis-

158 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. III.

cretion, and expressed all along so good affections, as
I cannot choose but here to mention him, and here-
after to beseech his majesty he may be remembered,
when, upon the dividing of the lands, his own parti-
cular come in question. In truth he deserves to be
extraordinarily well dealt withal, and so he shall, if it
please his majesty to leave it to me. I confess I
delight to do well for such as I see frame to serve my
master the right and cheerful way, albeit it be no
more than we are all of us bound to do, and churlish
enough I can be to such as do otherwise." — Commons^
Journals, i. 444.

What a gross and barefaced demand, that the chief
justice who presided at the trial, and the foreman of
the jury, should be richly rewarded, that is, that their
bribes should be abundantly paid ! It is, perhaps, the
most frank avowal of bribery upon record. What the
amount of the bribe given to the chief justice might
have been is not publicly known. Judges are a dis-
creet class, and can transact business privately. But
it has been said that Dillon, the foreman of the jury,
got for his share lands to the value of ten thousand
pounds a-year. He certainly got a large and valuable
estate.

These were the means by which Strafford succeeded
in getting a verdict confiscating the entire of the
county of Roscommon. He succeeded by similar
means in Mayo and Sligo. And yet he himself ad-
mits, that so far as the case of the Crown had any
appearance of substance, it was a pure fabrication.
To demonstrate this, I give three passages from his
letters; by which it will manifestly appear that the
whole thing was fraud and fabrication : —

" How to make his majesty's title to these planta-
tions of Connaught and Ormond (which, considering
they have been already attempted and foiled, is of all
the rest the greatest difficulty), I have not hitherto
received the least instruction from your lordship, or
any other minister of that &idLQ"— Straff oixl^ i. 339.

Again he writes as follows : —

CHAP. IIL] proofs, ETC. 159

" But I tm^t singly (with your majesty's coun-
tenance to support me) to work through all these
difficulties."— /SVra/orc?, i. 342.^

Again : " I will redeem the time as much as can be ;
treat with such as may give furtherance in finding of the
title, which, as I said, is the principal ; and inquire
out fit men to serve upon juries." — Stratford, i. 339. _

Indeed this scandalous avowal is perhaps more dis-
tinctly contained in another passage, which I subjoin
from a subsequent despatch of Strafford. It shows
not only the consciousness of the utter want of any
title which could be reasonably established in a court
of justice, but it also confirms that most vital fact in
the history of Irish misgovernment, viz., that Protes-
tantism was ever made the pretext and instrument of
every tyranny and oppression upon the native Irish.
The passage is this : —

" This house is very well composed, so as the Pro-
testants are the major part, clearly and thoroughly
with the King." . . . ''And considering, in truth,
that the popish party only have appeared to be averse
to all reformation or order in the Government, it will
be a good rod to hold over them when they shall see
it is in the King's power to pass upon them by a
plurality of voices all the laws of England concerning
religion, which, howbeit, I do not now dispute whether
it be fit or not fit ; yet to have the power with the
King is not amiss, and may be otherwise used with
great advantage for his majesty's service. It may
serve of great use to confirm and settle his majesty's
title to the plantations of Connaught and Ormond.
For this you may be sure, all the Protestants are for
plantations ; all the others against them ; so as those
being the greater number, you can want no help they
may give you therein. Nay, in case there be no title
to be made good to these countries for the Crown, yet
should I not despair forth of reason of state, and for
the strength and security of the kingdom, to have
them passed to the King by immediate Act of Parlia-
ment."—/SVrf'/brc/, i. 353.

160 OBSERVATIOXS, [CHAr. III.

^ Notwithstanding the total deficiency of the King's
title as against the possessors — a title against which
it was admitted that there was an adverse possession
of nearly three centuries — yet Strafford determined to
work out the iniquity to its full consummation.
Elated with the success that had attended him in
Roscommon, Mayo, and Sligo, he proceeded to con-
summate similar robbery on the inhabitants of the
wealthier and more populous county of Galway. But
here he was foiled for a time. In spite of all his arti-
fices, the jury found a verdict in favour of the de-
fendants ; as they were bound to do, if they had any
regard to the evidence or to their oaths. Let every
reasonable and just man listen to the consequences.
These are Strafibrd's own Vv^ords : —

" We then bethought us of a course to vindicate his
majesty's honour and justice, not only against the
persons of the jurors, but also against the sheriff, for
returning so insufficient, indeed, as we conceived, a
packed jury, to pass upon a business of so great
weight and consequence ; and therefore we fined the
sheriff in a thousand pounds to his majesty, and bound
over the jury to appear in the castle chamber, where,
we conceive, it is fit that their pertinacious carriage
be followed with all just severity." — Strafford^ i.
451.

We shall see what the "just severity" towards the
jury was : —

"They were fined four thousand pounds each:
their estates were seized, and themselves imprisoned
till the fines were paid." — Carte's Ormond.

Leland adds : —

"The jurors of Galway were to remain in prison
till each of them paid his fine of £4,000, and acknow-
ledged his offence in court upon his knees." — Leland,
book V. chap. i.

In the same despatch in which Strafford announced
his having committed the outrage of fining the sheriff
and imprisoning the jurors, he proposed to cut the
work short in the following summary manner : —

CHAP. III.] PEOOFS, ETC. 161

" We therefore have resolved, that I, the deputy,
shall forthwith give order to the King's learned coun-
sel to put the King's title into a legal proceeding (if
his majesty in his wisdom shall not find reason to
direct the contrary), which we conceive may be in a
fair and orderly way by an exchequer proceeding to
seize for his majesty the lands of the jurors, and
of all that shall not lay hold on his majesty's grace
offered them by the proclamation." — Strafford, i.
453.

He, however, advised other precautions. He ad-
vised : —

" That his majesty would be pleased to give war-
rant to me, his deputy, to add two hundred to the
number of the horse troops already listed here, yet
without any new addition of charge to his majesty in
respect of captains or other officers ; but that by them
the old troops may be reinforced by a distribution
among them of these new supplies, as I, his majesty's
deputy, shall think fit, or as I shall be better directed
by his majesty. This increase of horse we should
indeed advise at any time ; much rather now, till the
intended plantation be settled ; for it wall be neces-
sary that some strength of liorse may stand and look
on, as an excellent assistant to countenance the plan-
tation."—>S'r?Y(/orf/, i. 453, 454.

It will be recollected that Strafford, at the com-
mencement of these inquisitions, when he had secured
the jury for the county of Roscommon, made a parade
of the great liberality Avith which the Crown had per-
mitted counsel to defend the rights of the people
against itself. That this declaration was intended
merely as a trap, will appear from the following
extract from the same despatch, dated 25th August,
1635 :—

" For those counsellors of the law, who so laboured
against the King's title, we conceive it is fit that such
of them as we shall find reason so to proceed wdthal,
be put to take the oath of supremacy, which, if they
refuse, that then they be silenced, and not admitted

L

162 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. III.

to practise as noAv they do ; it being unfit that they
should take benefit by his majesty^s graces, that take
the boldness after such a manner to oppose his ser-
vice."— Strafford, i. 454.

It is manifest, therefore, that the permission to use
counsel must have been given in the expectation
that such counsel would neglect their duty to their
clients, and betray their own consciences, to please the
lord deputy. The counsel disappointed this unholy
expectation. They were accordingly driven from the
practice of their profession ; for they would not and
could not take the oath of supremacy.

I cannot refrain from here stating a fact which has
occurred in my own time. There was an individual
at the Irish bar who practised exclusively in the crimi-
nal courts ; and who for nearly twenty years contrived
to be appointed counsel for all the persons prosecuted
by the Crown. Yet that man had, for the last eighteen
years of his life, a private pension of £300 per annum
from the Crown. This was not discovered by the
public until after his death. What was this pension
given for 1

To return to Wentworth, and the methods whereby
he procured verdicts. Here is a specimen : —

"Your majesty was graciously pleased, upon my
humble advice, to bestow four shillings in the pound
upon your lord chief justice and lord chief baron in
this kingdom, forth of the first yearly rent raised up-
on the Commission of Defective Titles. Which, upon
observation, I find to be the best given that ever was ;
for now they do intend it with a care and diligence
such as it were their own private ; and most certain,
the gaining to themselves every four shillings once
paid, shall better your revenue for ever after at least
five pounds." — Strafford, ii. 41.

The unhappy Galway jnrors remained for years in
prison. They sent agents to London to obtain mercy
from the King — but in vain ! On the contrary,
Strafi'ord had the audacity to demand that these
agents should be punished ! — punished merely for

CHAP. III.] PROOFS, ETC. 163

going to sue for mercy. There is this passage in his
despatch of the 14th December, 1635 : —

" I find that nothing would give these commission-
ers so much satisfaction, and even in my own judg-
ment so much enable us, and dispose all to a speedy
and happy conclusion, as to remit these agents of
Galway in the condition of prisoners, and their pro-
positions entirel}'' to our consideration and legal pro-
ceeding on this side." — Strnfford, i. 493.

And, accordingly, the agents Avere transmitted as
prisoners, to abide the tender mercies of Strafford.

It has been said that the unhappy Charles was
ignorant of these enormities, and would have con-
demned them. Alas ! the fact is otherwise. Strafford,
in the year 1636, went over to England ; reported to
the King in council his proceedings in the Galway
case. The King replied —

" That it was no severity ; and wished him togo on
in that way ; for that if he served him otherwise, he
would not serve him as he expected. So," adds Went-
worth, " I kneeled down, kissed his majesty's hand,
and the council arose." — Carte's Ormond, vol. iii.
p. 11.

If any one will reflect upon the multitude of crimes
of which the King thus expressed his approval, he
will not be surprised at the ultimate fate of the un-
fortunate monarch. Assuredly the forms of law were
never before used to inflict such a complication of
iniquities as were perpetrated by Strafford, and ap-
proved of by the King.

The palliation, or rather justification, which ob-
trudes itself in all Strafford's despatches, is, that all
these things were done, not only to augment the
King's revenue^ but first ami especially for the ad-
vancement of Protestantism, and the good of Pro-
testants. O Protestantism ! what horrors have been
committed in your name in Ireland !

I pass hastily over another grievance of the utmost
magnitude sustained by the Irish ; it was the institu-
tion of the Court of Wards.

164 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. III.

'• This was a new court, never known in Ireland till
the 14th of James I. It had no warrant from any law
or statute, whereas that of England was erected by
an Act of Parliament." — Carte's Ormond^ vol. i
p. 517. -

The object of this court was to vest in persons
appointed by the Crown the custody of the estates of
minors. It is easy to see how it worked in Ireland,
especially during the rule of Strafford.

" Sir William Parsons, by whom it was first pro-
jected, was appointed master of it — a man justly and
universally hated by the Irish ; and such were the
illegal and arbitrary proceedings of that court, that
' the heirs of Catholic noblemen and other Catholics
were destroyed in their estates, bred in dissolution
and ignorance ; their parents' debts unsatisfied, their
sisters and younger brothers left wholly unprovided
for ; the ancient appearing tenures of mesne lords dis-
regarded ; estates valid in law, and made for valuable
considerations, avoided against law ; and the whole
land filled with frequent swarms of escheators, feuda-
tories, pursuivants, and others, by authority of that
court.' ' — Remonstrance from Trim (apud Curry,
p. 125).

Another court was instituted still more recently,
and if possible with less authority. It was Lord
Strafford who proposed to erect this other court, in the
year 1633. It inflicted on the Catholics —

" An incapacity for all offices and employments ; a
disability to sue out livery of their estates without
taking the oath of supremacy ; severe penalties of
various kinds inflicted by that court on all those of
the Catholic religion, although the Catholics were an
hundred to one more than those of ai:^ other religion."
— Remonstrance from Trim (ut supra).

The proceedings in this court were of a nature so
cruelly oppressive, and so utterly indefensible, that
even Leland speaks of them in the following terms: —

" These regulations in the ecclesiastical system were
followed by an establishment too odious, and there-

CHAP. III.] PEOOPS, ETC. 165

fore too dangerous, to be attempted during the sessions
of parliament, that of a High Commission Court,
which was erected in Dublin after the English model,
with the same formality and the same tremendoiis
powers." — LeUuuVs Ireland, book v. chap. 1.

I cannot proceed without giving the following
exquisite morqeau. It is part of Lord Strafford's
defence of himself, in which he, with great naivete,
relies upon cases in point, of cruelty. Let it speak for
itself :—

"I dare appeal to those that know the country,
whether in former times many men have not been
committed and executed by the deputies' warrant that
were not thieves and rebels, but such as went up and
down the country. If they could not give a good
account of themselves, the provost-marshal, by direction
of the deputies, using in such cases to hang them up.
I dare say there are hundreds of examples in this
kind." — liushwortli s CoUectanea, viii. 649.

I may here, also, by vway of parenthesis, bring before
the reader other significant passages from Protestant
historians, wliich show that the virulence wherewith
Catholicity was persecuted was not confined to the
ecclesiastical courts.

" In this year (1629) the Roman clergy began to rant
it, and to exercise their fancies called religion so pub-
licly, as if they had gained a toleration. For whilst
the lords justices were at Christ Church in Dublin on
St. Stephen's day, they were celebrating mass in Cook-
street ; which their lordships taking notice of, they
sent the Archbishop of Dublin, the mayor, sheriffs, and
recorder of the city, with a file of musketeers, to ap-
prehend them ; which they did, taking away the
crucifixes and paraments of the altar ; the soldiers
hewing down the image of St. Francis ; the priests and
friars were delivered into the hands of the pursuivants,
at whom the people threw stones, and rescued them.
The lords justices being informed of this, sent a
guard and delivered them, and clapped eight popish
aldermen by the heels for not assisting their mayor.

166 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. III.

On this account, fifteen houses [viz., chapels], by direc-
tion of the lords of the council in England, were
seized to the King's use ; and the priests and friars were
so persecuted, that two of them hanged themselves in
their own defence." — Hammon I! Estrange^ quoted in
Harris's Fiction Unmasked.

It will be easily believed that the priests and friars
were saved the trouble of hanging themselves.*

All these proceedings were approved of by the un-
happy Charles.

" His majesty^ in person, was pleased openly, and
in the most gracious manner, to approve and commend
their ability and good service ; whereby they might be
sufiiciently encouraged to go on, with the like resolu-
tion and moderation, till the work was fully done, as
well in the city as in other places of the kingdom,
leaving to their discretion when and where to carry a
soft or harder hand." — Scrinia Sacra.

It is just worth while to pause for one moment,
and to see what was doing in England about the
same time ; or, as the modern phrase is, " was being
done."

" Besides Eichard Herst, Edmund Arrowsmith, and
others, put to death in 1628, merely for exercising the
functions of Eoman Catholic priests ; Thomas BuUa-
ker, Thomas Holland, Paul Heath, Francis Bell, Rho-
dolphus Colman (condemned, but reprieved), Henry
Morse, Morgan, Philip Powel, and Martin Wood-
cock, together with Reading and AVhitaker, were
executed in England for the same causes, between the
years 1641 and 1646 . . . The condition of a mission-
ary at the beginning of this reign was different from
what it was at the latter end of it, when reUgious zeal
against popery was heightened and inflamed with all
the rage of faction. If a Turkish dervise had then
preached Mahomet in England, he would have met
much better treatment than a popish priest." — Grain-
ger''s Biographical Hist, of England, ii. pp. 206, 7, 8.

It will be remembered that nothing more tended to
foment the great rebellion in England against Charles

CHAP. HI.] PHOOFS, ETC. 167

the First, than the oppressions practised by the Court
of Wards and the High Commission Court. Ireland
felt more than double the severity inflicted upon
England by these institutions.

The reason why I have dwelt in these notes upon
the enormities committed in the administration of
what was called "justice" in Ireland, is that, by the
most singular perversion of the facts of history, not
only Temple, but Clarendon, and, after him, Hume,
and a multitude of other calumniators of Ireland,
have gravely stated the astounding falsehood, that
Ireland was well governed in the reigns of James the
First and of Charles the First !

Well governed ! when the ecclesiastical courts
hunted the Catholics like wild beasts, and crowded
them, when caught, into loathsome prisons ! when
the Court of Wards spoliated the properties of all
Catholic minors, and perverted their religion ! when
the High Commission Court punished "with more than
Star-Chamber severity every supposed slight or insult
to any person in power — punished every resistance
(however necessary and justiflable) to the will or
caprice of men in authority ! when the sheriffs
were intimidated, and punished if the verdicts of the
juries did not satisfy the ruling tyrants ! when the
chief justice and other judges were bribed by the
highest authority in the land — bribed with a stipulated
proportion of the property in dispute, for procuring
judgment against the unhappy possessors of that pro-
perty ! when the jurors who obeyed the impulses of
conscience were thrown to rot in prison — were ruined
by fines so enormous as to amount to a confiscation of
their property — were pilloried, had their ears cut

off, their tongues bored through — were but I will

not pursue this subject. What need I ?

Well governed ! This is what English writers of
the highest class call good government.

168 OBSERVATIOKS, [cHAP. III.

CHAPTER III.-PAET 11.

I AM not writing the history in detail of the civil
war ; I am merely justifying my statement in the
text. No person can deny that the cause of the King
had now t3ecome identified with that of the Irish
Catholics.

Now for the cruelties perpetrated by the English
Protestant parliamentarians and Cromwellians.

My first extract is from a Protestant clergyman —
the historian Leland. He shows the design with
which these cruelties were committed.

" The favourite object of the Irish governors and
the English parliament, was the utter extermination
of all the Catholic inhabitants of Ireland. Their
estates were already marked out and allotted to their
conquerors ; so that they and their posterity were
consigned to inevitable ruin." — Leland^ book v.
chap. 4.

My second quotation, establishing the same fact, is
from another Protestant clergyman, named Rev. Dr.
Warner : —

" It is evident from their (the lords justices) last
letter to the lieutenant, that they hoped for an extir-
pation, not of mere Irish only, but of all the old
English families that were Roman Catholics." —
Warne7^s History of the Rebellion and Civil War in
Ireland^ j). 17G.

Upon this subject — namely, the design of utter
extirpation — my next quotation is from the equally
undeniable authority of Lord Clarendon : —

" The parliament party . . . had grounded their
own authority and strength upon such foundations as
were inconsistent with any toleration of the Roman
Catholic religion, and even with any humanity to the
Irish nation, and more especially to those of the old
native extraction, the whole race whereof they had
upon the matter sworn to extirpate/' — Lord Claren-
don, i. 215.

CHAP. III.] PROOFS, ETC. 169

^ This hideous determination of massacre was occa-
sionally somewhat relaxed when the fortunes of the
parliamentarians waned ; it was relaxed, however,
only to be renewed with redoubled alacrity when their
fortunes prospered again. The foUomng is from
Carte's Ormond: —

"Mr. Brent lately landed here, and hath brought
with him such letters as have somewhat changed the
face of this government from what it was, when the
parliament pamphlets were received as oracles, their
commands obeyed as laws, and extirpation preached
for gospel." — Carte s Oniiond, iii. 170.

There were two objects to be gratified by the Eng-
lish Protestant rulers of the day. The first was the
increase of plunder to themselves in the confiscation
of the estates of the Catholics. The second was the
indiscriminate slaughter of those Catholics, without
any distinction of age, sex, rank, or condition. The
following accusation — fully. borne out by the facts —
is quoted from the same English Protestant historian,
Carte : —

"There is too much reason to think, that as the
lords justices really wished the rebellion to spread,
and more gentlemen of estates to be involved in it,
that the forfeitures might be the greater, and a general
plantation be carried on by a new set of English
Protestants all over the kingdom, to the ruin and
expulsion of all the old English and natives that
were Ptoman Catholics ; so, to promote what they
wished, they gave out sach a design, and that in a
short time there would not be a Roman Catholic left
in the kingdom. It is no small confirmation of this
notion, that the Earl of Ormond, in his letters of
January 27th and February 25th, 1G41-2, to Sir W.
St. Leger, imputes the general revolt of the nation,
then far advanced, to the publishing of such a design ;
and v/hen a person of his great modesty and temper,
the most averse in his nature to speak his sentiments
of what he could not but condemn in others, and who,
when obliged to do so, does it always in the gentlest

170 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. III.

expressions, is drawn to express such an opinion, the
case must be very notorious. I do not find that the
copies of those letters are preserved ; but the original
of Sir William St. Leger's, in answer to them, suffi-
ciently shows it to be his lordship's opinion ; for, after
acknowledging the receipt of these two letters, he
useth these words: — 'The undue promulgation of
that severe determination to extirpate the Irish and
papacy out of this kingdom, your lordship rightly
apprehends to be too unseasonably published.'" —
Carte's Ormond, i. 263.

This St. Leger was himseK one of the chief extir-
pators ; and I pray the reader to observe that he does
not at all condemn the system of massacring the Irish
to the last man. The only thing that he finds fault
Avith is the unseasonable publication of the purpose
to do so. It will, however, be more clearly under-
stood what his real dispositions were, from a letter
written by Lord Upper Ossory, quoted by Carte, in
which the writer says : —

"That Sir William St. Leger" (who was Lord
President of Munster) "was so cruel and merciless,
that he caused men and women to be most execrably
executed; and that he ordered, among others, a
woman great with child to be ripped up, from whose
womb three babes were taken out ; through every of
v/hose little bodies his soldiers thrust their weapons ;
which act," adds Lord Upper Ossory, " put many into
a sort of des])eration." — Carte's Ormoncl, vol. ii. p. 51,

I only implore Englishmen and Protestants to read
these extracts from Protestant historians, and to re-
flect how much of disrepute they fling upon Pro-
testantism in general, and the English nation in
particular. If they had such a case to make, in point
of fact, against the Catholics, we should never hear
the end of it.

But as the cruelties of individuals will bring the
fact more pointedly before the mind, and cause its
more easy retention in the recollection, I will select
some specimens of tliQ sqavoir faire of that Sir Charles

CHAP. III.] PEOOFS, ETC. 171

Coote, whom I have mentioned in the text. To work
out the purposes of the English Government, power
of life and death was given to him. Mark the follow-
ing description of him and his cruelties : —

" It was certainly a miserable spectacle to see every-
day numbers of people executed by martial law, at the
discretion, or rather caprice, of Sir Charles Coote— a
hot-headed and bloody man, and as such accounted
even by the English Protestants. Yet, this was the
man whom the lords justices picked out to entrust
with a commission of martial law to put to death
rebels or traitors — that is, all such as he should deem
to be so ; which he performed with delight and a
wanton kind of cruelty. And j^t all this while the
justices sat in council, and the judges, at the usual
seasons, sat in their respective courts, spectators of
and countenancing so extravagant a tribunal as Sir
Charles Coote's, and so illegal an execution of justice."
— Lord CasUehaven, quoted in Carte's Ormoncl, vol.
i. pp. 279, 280.

Another specimen of the services upon which Sir
Charles Coote was employed, we have on the authority
of Borlase, as well as of Carte. The public faith had
been pledged to protect a Mr. King, one of the
gentlemen assembled at Swords. The lords justices
observed their plighted faith by sending a party of
horse and foot, on the 15th December, 1641, to Clon-
tarf, the property of Mr. King, with orders to fall
upon, and cut off the inhabitants, and burn the village.

"These orders," says Borlase, "were excellently
well executed." — Hist. Eeh. p. 62.

Carte adds : —

"Sir Charles Coote, who, by the lords justices'
special designation, was appointed to go on this
expedition, as the fittest person to execute their orders,
and one who best knew their minds, at this time
pillaged and burned houses, corn, and other goods
belonging to Mr. King, to the value of four thousand
pounds.'' — Cartels Oriiiond, i. 249.

The next extract I shall give is of some length ;

172 OBSERVATIONS, CU.VP. III.

but it is exceedingly significant. It relates to the
murder of father Higgins, the parish priest of ^ Naas ;
a man of innocent life, of humanity, and of piety ; a
man whose character was never tarnished. Yet his
innocence, his active humanity, and his piety, could
not — in the midst of Dublin, and in the presence of
the Government — avail him aught ! Every part of
this extract is pregnant with meaning : the object to
discourage submissions, lest they should diminish
confiscations, was well Avorthy of our pious Protestant
English governors. Here is the story of his assassi-
nation : —

" The cruelties of tlie martial law under Sir C.
Coote have been already mentioned ; but about this
time, when it was thought politic to discourage the
submissions which were growing frequent, Father
Higgins, a very quiet, pious, inoffensive man, who
had put himself under the protection of Lord Ormond,
and whom his lordship had brought with him to
Dublin, was one morning seized ; and Avithout any
trial or delay, or giAdng his lordship any notice of the
intention, by Sir C. Coote's order, hanged. Father
Higgins officiated as priest at Naas and in that
neighbourhood ; had distinguished himself greatly
by saving the English in those parts from spoil and
slaughter ; and had relieved several whom he found
to have been stripped and plundered, so far was he
from engaging in the rebellion, or giving any encou-
ragement to it. Lord Ormond had therefore taken
him under his protection ; and when he heard of the
execution of this innocent man, for no other reason
than his being a priest, his lordship was very warm
in his expostulations with the justices upon it at the ■
council board. They pretended to be surprised ; and
excused themselves from having had any other hand
in the affair than giving Sir (J. Coote a general au-
thority to order such executions without consulting
them. Lord Ormond insisted that Coote should be
tried for what he had done, as having hanged an
innocent, nay, a deserving subject, without examina-

CHAP. III.] PROOFS, ETC. 173

tion without trial, and witliout a particular warrant
to authorize him in it. The justices, who had either
directed him to do it, or were determined to support
their favourite in a proceeding which Avas agreeable
to them, would not give him up. _ Their hanging a
man of character at all, deserving in many respects,
•and exceptionable in none but his religion, inclines
one to think that they intended this war should be
understood to be a war of religion. But their hang-
ing him in such a manner, by martial law, by Sir C
Coote's authority only, against justice and humanity,
when brought thither and protected by Lord Ormond,
could only be meant to prevent all submissions, or to
offer such an indignity to his lordship as should pro-
voke him to resign his commission, and to oppose
them no longer in council." — Warner, p. 182.

I now give Clarendon's version of the same transac-
tion ; because it shows the brutality of even the
soldiers who were under the command of Ormond,
while he was serving the English party. It, however,
does not appear that these soldiers knew he was a
priest. They were ready to murder hun merely for
being a papist.

" The Marquis of Ormond, having intelligence that
a party of the rebels intended to be at such a time at
the Naas, he drew some troops with the hope of sur-
prising them ; and, marching all night, came early in
the morning into the town, from which the rebels,
upon notice, were newly fled. In the town some of
the soldiers found the Kev. ]Mr. Higgins, who might,
it is true, Jiave as easily fleck if he had apprehended
any danger in the stay. "When he was brought be-
fore the marquii*, he voluntarily acknowledged that
he was a papist, and that his residence was in the
town, from whence he refused to fly away with those
who were guilty ; because he not only knew himself
very innocent, but believed that he could not be
without ample evidence of it, having by his sole
charity and power preserved very many of the Eng-
lish Protestants from the rage and fury of the Irish :

174 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. III.

and, therefore, he only besought the marquis to pre-
serve him from the violence of the soldiers, and to
put him securely into Dublin, to be tried for any
crime ; which the marquis promised to do, and per-
formed it, though with so much hazard, that when it
was spread abroad among the soldiers that he was a
papist, the officer into whose custody he was entmsted
was assaulted by them ; and it was as much as the
marquis could do to relieve him, and compose the
mutiny. When he came to Dublin he informed the
lords justices of the prisoner he had brought with
him ; of the good testimony he had received of his
peaceable carriage ; and of the pains he had taken to
restrain those with whom he had credit, from entering
into rebellion ; and of many charitable offices he had
performed, of which there wanted not evidence
enough, there being many then in Dublin who owed
their lives, and whatever of their fortunes was left,
purely to him; so that he doubted not that he would be
worthy of protection. Within a few days after, when
the marquis did not suspect the poor man's being in
danger, he heard that Sir Charles Coote, who was
Provost-marshal General, had him taken out of prison,
and caused him to be put to death in the morning,
before or as soon as it was light ; of which barbarity
the marquis complained to the lords justices ; but
was so far from bringing the other to be questioned,
that he found himself to be upon some disadvantage,
for thinking the proceeding to be other than it ought
to have been." — Clarendon's Hist. Irish Reh.

I wish to specify in particular the cruelties of Sir
Charles Coote in the county of Wicklow. Let it be
recollected that Coote's crimes are not the crimes of
an individual only ; the Government who selected
and employed him is, of course, responsible for those
crimes. Here is the short and pithy account given by
Leland of an expedition of his into the county of
Wicklow : —

" Sir Charles Coote," says Leland, " in revenge of
the depredations of the Irish, committed such unpro-

CHAP. III.] PROOFS, ETC. 175

voked, snch ruthless, and indiscriminate carnage in
the town of Wicklow, as rivalled the utmost extra-
vagances of the northerns." — Leland's Hist. Ireland,
book V. c. 4.

Fortified by this corroboration, T do not hesitate
to give the follo'\AT.ng accountof the English cruelties
in the county of Wicklow, from a pamphlet published
in London in the year 1662, although it was written
by an Irish Catholic. But as the writer appeals con-
fidently to then living Protestant witnesses, and in-
deed is corroborated in the most important of hisi
statements by Leland and Warner, both Protestant
clergymen, it is manifest that his details can with
perfect saiety be relied on.

" County of Wickloiv — October, 1641. Three wo-
men, whereof one gentlewoman was big with child,
and a hoj, were hanged on the bridge of Neuraghby
command of Sir Charles Coote, in his first march to
that county ; and he caused his guide to blow into
his pistol, and so shot him dead. He also hanged a
poor butcher on the same march, called Thomas Mac
William. Mr. Dan Conyam, of Glanely, aged, and
unable to bear arms, was roasted to death by Cap-
tain Gee, of Colonel Crafibrd's regiment ; and in the
marches of 1641, 1642, and 1643, the English army
killed all they met in this country, though no mur-
ders are charged in the said county to be committed
on Protestants by the iVbstract. In the usurper's time,
Captain Barrington, garrisoned at Arklow, murdered
Donagli O'Doyle of Killecarrow, and above five hun-
dred more protected by himself ; and it is well known
that most of the commonalty were murdered."

Here is another passage from the same writer, con-
firmed by Carte and Warner in like manner. It is
given in abstract by those Protestant historians, but
in fuller detail in the following quotation : —

^'County of Dublin . — 1641. About the beginning
of November, five poor men (whereof two were Pro-
testants) coming from the market of Dublin, and
lying that night at Santry, three miles from thence,

176 OBSERVATIONS. [CHAP. III.

were murdered in their beds by one Captain Smith
and a party of the garrison of Dublin, and their heads
brought next day in triumph into the city; which
occasioned Luke Netterville and George King, and
others of the neighbours, to write to the lords jus-
tices to know the cause of the said murder : where-
upon their lordships issued forth a proclamation that
within five days the gentry should come to Dublin to
receive satisfaction ; and in the meanwhile (before the
five days were expired) old Sir Charles Coote came
out with a party, plundered and burned the town of
Clontarf, distant two miles from Dublin, belonging to
the said George King, nominated in the jjroclama-
tion, and killed 16 of the townsmen and women, and
three sucking infants. Which unexpected breach of
the proclamation (having deterred the gentlemen from
Avaiting on the lords justices) forced many of them
to betake themselves to their defence, and abandon
their houses.'^

The character of Sir Charles Coote requires no fur-
ther elucidation. He was the man to whom the Eng-
lish Government gave unlimited power of life and
death over the Irish. " He was," as Carte says, " the
fittest person to execute their orders, and one who
best knew their minds." it is not surprising, there-
fore, that a 'Protestant clergyman should give of him
the following mitigated character : —

"He" (Sir Charles Coote) "was a stranger to
mercy, and committed many acts of cruelty without
distinction." — Warne7^'s Hist. Irish Reb. p. 135.

This Sir Charles Coote was of inestimable value to
his employers. The object of the English party,
headed by the lords justices, was, as we have seen,
to drive the Catholics into rebellion ; and they began
by falsely accusing them of treasonable practices. For
that purpose they spared no methods, however in-
famous, to fabricate evidence against the Catholic
nobility and gentry. The rack and torture were fami-
liar instruments of this villany. This fact is ad-
mitted by all contemporary liistorians. Speaking

CHAP. III.] PEOOFS, ETC. 177

of some of the principal Catliolic gentry, Leland
says : —

" They (the chief governors) resolved to supply
the want of legal evidence by putting come prisoners
to the rack. They began with Hugh ]\I'jMahon, who
had been seized on the information of O'Connoiy, and
from whom they expected some important discoveries.
But torture could force nothing from him essential
to their great purpose." — Leland, book v. c. 4.

Even in this cruelty there is a very characteristic
trait. The Irish gentry, unwilling to be driven into
armed resistance, entrusted Sir John Eead with a pe-
tition to the King. Parsons (whom %ve have already
named — the ancestor of the present Earl of Kossc)
obtained the. confidence of Sir John Read, and of
course betrayed him. Let Warner tell the story : —

" Sir John Read, by the same stretch of arbitrary
power, was brought to the rack. This gentleman Avas
of the privy chamber to the King, a lieutenant-
colonel in the late disbanded army, and engaged by
the lords of the Pale to carry over their petitions to
the King and Queen. He intended to make no secret
of his journey, and therefore sent a letter by a servant
of his own to Parsons, to desire a pass ; who, in an-
swer, required him to repair to Dublin, that the
council might confer with him." — Warner,^. 177.

He was tortured. But no evidence could be extor-
ted from him, because he had no evidence to give
against the Catholic gentry whom it was sought to
convict, save that which ho had avowed and consi-
dered no crime, namely, their having petitioned the
Sovereign for protection. He was, however, made to
feel that if the fact of petitioning were not a crime, it
was at least punishable as such. Let the English
reader pause upon the consequences : —

*' Sir J. Read was sent a prisoner to England ; and
whilst absent, and in those circumstances, was in-
dicted and outlawed for high treason ; his lady and
goods were seized upon, and she and his children
turned out of doors j and when she petitioned to these

M

178 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. III.

worthy justices to assign her some part of her effects
to maintain her family, they absolutely refused to
allow her any." — Wariier, 178.

Ay— his wife and children turned out to starve !
There is a specimen of English humanity and justice
for you ! While the wife and children were famishing,
the Government proceeded in their reckless ca-
reer : —

" The racking M'Mahon and Sir John Eead did not
content this merciless administration; and so Mr. Barne-
wal, of Killebrew, was put to the same torture. He was
one of the most considerable gentlemen of the Pale ; a
venerable old man of sixty-six years of age, delighting in
husbandry, a lover of quiet, and highly respected in
his country. He had sent intelligenceio the govern-
ment of the motion of the Ulster rebels in the month
of November ; and the only thing that could be said
against him was, that he had obeyed the sheriff's sum-
mons for the meeting at the hill of Crofty, when Lord
Gormanstown declared an union with them. It does
not appear that he approved the union, or that he ac-
tually had joined them upon any occasion ; and so
little did the ministers get by putting him to the tor-
ture, that it only served to make his innocence and
their own inhumanity the more conspicuous." —
Warner, p. 179.

The object was avowed— to force the Catholics of
property into rebelUon. They were allowed no means
of defending their houses against the insurgents
who had already been driven to take up arms. They
thronged into Dublin, where they would have been
under the immediate inspection of the Government,
and would have joined in resisting the insurgents.
But the object of the English Protestant party was
to force these Catholics of wealth to join those whom
they called rebels. It required no less than three
proclamations to force them out of Dublin. But I
will give the original authority : —

" The gentlemen of the Pale, banished Dublin by
three successive proclamations, and on pain of death

CHAP. III.] PROOFS, ETC. 179

ordered to repair to their own houses, unable to make
resistance, and seeing not any, even the least, prospect
of relief or succour, opened their defenceless habitations
to the enemy ; which gave the lords justices occa-
sion to complain ' that the rebels were harboured and
lodged in gentlemen's houses of that county, as fully
as if they were good subjects/ This correspondence,
however necessitated it w^as at first, involving them
in the guilt of rebellion, according to the rigour of
the law% w^hich they had no reason to think would be
relaxed on account of their unhappy situation, by any
favour or tenderness they might hope from the then
Government, made the gentlemen in general, and the
high sheriff in particular, to join the rebels, and put
the fate of their persons and fortunes upon the issue
of the TeheHion "—^Carte^s Ormond, i. 238.

Thus, they w^ere to be punished wdth death if they
remained in Dublin. Driven to their own houses
they must submit to the insurgents, and thus incur
the penalties of treason. What were they then to do 1
Several of these unhappy gentlemen fled back from
the insurgents, and surrendered themselves to the
mercy of the justices. This was the proceeding
taken against them : —

"All the gentlemen who surrendered themselves
were, without being admitted to the presence of the
justices, committed prisoners to the castle. Prepara-
tions were made for their trial, and it was publicly
said they should be prosecuted Avith the utmost se-
verity. But as they had never appeared in the field,
nor been engaged in any warlike action, proper facts
w^ere w^anting to support a charge against them. To
supply this defect, the lords justices had recourse to
the rack, though against the law^, in order to extort
such confessions as these miscreants had a mind to
put into the mouths of the unhappy men who w^ere to
undergo it." — Warner, \^. 176.

The premeditation with which the lords justices
arranged their plans for driving the Irish into rebel-
lion, is well illustrated by the following extract ; which

180 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. III.

shows that no devices were omitted to drive the Cca-
thelic Irish to despair, and to force them to defend
themselves with the sword : —

" Some time before the rebellion broke out," says
Carte, "it was confidently reported that Sir John
Clotworthy, who well knew the designs of the faction
that governed the House of Commons in England,
had declared there in a speech that the conversion of
the papists in Ireland was only to be effected by the
Bible in one hand and the sword in the other ; and
Mr. Pym gave out that they would not leave a priest
in Ireland. To the like effect Sir William Parsons,
out of a strange weakness, or detestable policy, posi-
tively asserted before so many witnesses, at a public
entertainment, that within a twelvemonth no Catholic
should be seen in Ireland. He had sense enough to
know the consequences that would naturally arise
from such a declaration ; which, however it might con-
tribute to his own selfish views, he would hardly have
ventured to make so openly and without disguise, if
it had not been agreeable to the politics and measures
of the English faction, whose party he espoused, and
whose directions were the general rule of his conduct."
—Carte's Ormond, vol. i. p. 235.

"It is evident," says Dr. Warner, a Protestant
clergyman, "from the lords justices' letter to the Earl
of Leicester, then lord lieutenant, that they hoped
for an extirpation, not of the mere Irish only, but of all
the old English families also who were Roman
Catholics." — Warner's Hist of the Irish Rebel.

Coming back for one moment to Sir Charles Coote,
the catalogue of whose horrors we have already de-
scribed, I will revive the recollection of them by the
following passage from Clarendon : —

"Sir Charles, besides plundering and burning this
town [Clontarf ] at that time did massacre sixteen of the
townspeople, men, and women, besides three sucking
infants ; and in the very same week, fifty-six men, women,
and children of the village of Bulloge, being fright-
ened at what was done at Clontarf , took boats, and

CHAP, ill.] PROOFS, ETC. 181

went to sea, to slum the fury of a party of soldiers
that were come out of Dublin, under the command
of Colonel Crafford ; but being pursued by the sol-
diers in other boats, they were overtaken and thrown
overboard." — xijypendix to Clarendon^s Hist. Irish
Eel). Wilford, London., 1720.

Was Coote punished for his sanguinary conduct,
not exceeded in atrocity by that of the modern E,o-
bespierre % You shall learn : —

" Sir Charles Coote, immediately after his inhuman
executions and promiscuous murders of the people in
Wicklow, was made governor of Dublin." — Carle's
Ormond,i. 259.

The hideous monster, Coote, indeed was, as I have
already said, of inestimable value to his employers.
To him was given the part of the arch-hend. It
was death and destruction to place the least confidence
in him. The lords justices proposed a treaty with
the lords of the Pale, who were most anxious to
accept any terms ; but they would not put themselves
into the power of Sir Charles Coote, who they knew
would have murdered every one of them.

" The lords justices, as soon as they were satisfied
that the lords of the Pale would not trust themselves
in the city in the hands of Sir Charles Coote, though
they were ready to treat with commissioners sent
from thence to any place out of his power, took mea-
sures in order to convict them of treason, and forfeit
their estates." — Carte's Ormond, i. 276.

For the present — so much for Sir Charles Coote !
I go on with my extracts.

The next is, the orders given in February, 1641-2,
by the lords justices to the Earl of Ormond ; com-
nuniicated to him in the shape of a resolution, as
follows :—

" It is resolved— That it is fit that his lordship do
endeavour with his majesty's forces to wound, kill,
slay, and destroy, by all the ways and means he may,
all the said rebels, their adherents and relievers ;
and burn, spoil, waste, consume, destroy, and demo-

182 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. Ill-

lisli, all the places, towns, and houses, where the
rebels are, or have been, relieved and harboured ;
and all the hay and corn there ; and kill and destroy-
all the men there inhabiting capable to bear arms.
Given at his majesty's Castle of Dublin, 23rd Feb-
ruary, 1641-2.

"R. DiLLOX, F. WiLLOUGHBY,

Tho. Hotherham, J. Temple,

Ab. Loftus, Robeet Meredith."

—Carte, iii. 61.

With what fiendish pleasure this tribunal of blood
gloated over every word that could signify destruc-
tion or massacre ! The French Revolutionists were
but poor copyists of English cruelty in Ireland ! The
orders were of course carried into effect beyond the
letter, but according to the spirit. Here is what Le-
land says : —

"In the execution of these orders, the justices
declare that the soldiers slew all persons promis-
cuously, not sparing the women, and sometimes not the
children." — Leland, book v.

It will be remarked that the original orders were
of the most cruel injustice ; because they not only
sanctioned the slaughter of those who were called
" rebels, and their aiders and abettors," but also of
all male adults who happened to reside in any of the
quarters where the so-called rebels had been received ;
although such persons might be perfectly innocent of
the "crime" of having given them any assistance.
But villanous and blood-tliirsty as were the instruc-
tions, yet the cruelty of the execution went beyond
them. That, indeed, was almost a matter of course,
when one considers the sanguinary spirit that pre-
vailed against the Irish.

That these massacres were committed, not by the
over zeal of the meaner sort, but were deliberately
planned and ordained by the persons in the highest
authority, can be established by the most abundant
proofs. We have seen the diabolical orders issued

CHAP. III.] PEOOFS, ETC. 183

by tlie lords justices. Read now tlie following ex-
tract from Lord Ormond : —

" Sir William Parsons liatli by late letters advised
the governor to tlie burning of corn, and to put man,
woman and child to the sword ; and Sir Adam Lof-
tus hath written in the same strain." — Ormond's Let-
ters, ii. 350.

Here is a specimen of a massacre of prisoners in
the streets of Dublin, wlio were taken at the battle
of Kathmines. It is Lord Ormond who speaks : —

" The army, I am sure," says his lordship, " was
not eight thousand effective men ; and of them it is
certain that there were not above six hundred killed *
the and most of them that were killed, were butchered
after they had laid down their arms, and had been
almost an hour prisoners, and divers of them mur-
dered after they were brought within the works of
D\M\ia:'— Ormond, ii. 396.

Those who (according to the practice of the day)
were massacred as prisoners, were not all Irish : —

_" Some Walloons, whom the soldiers took for
Irishmen, were put to the sword." — Whitelock's Me-
morials of English Affairs,

Unlucky Walloons !

^ As I have referred to Whitelock, I may as well
give two other short extracts from that writer, signi-
ficant of the practice of the time : —

" Their friars and priests were knocked on the head
promisucuosly with the others who were in arms."
— Whitelock, p. 412.

Again : —

Sir Theophilus Jones had taken a castle, put some
men to the sword, and thirteen priests." — White-
lock, p. 527.

I will give the following instances of the conduct
of General Monroe, who was employed by the Go-
vernment in the northern expedition : —

" Monroe put sixty men, eighteen women, and two
priests to death at Newry." — Leland, iii. 203.

The second is this : —

184 OBSEEVATIONS, [CHAP. III.

"He [Monroe] at Lord Conway's instance who
attended him in the expedition, advanced with 3,600
foot, three troops of korse, and four field-pieces. He
did no other service than taking a view of the place
on the 16th July, 1642, and saw some parties of the
enemy who had no powder to fire. He did not attack
them ; but making a prey of cattle, and killing seven
hundred country people, men, women, and children,
who were driving away the cattle, he returned to
Newry." — Carte, vol. i. p. 311,

One trait more of Monroe : —

[Other] "forces joining Monroe, he made up the
strongest army that had been seen in Ireland during
the war ; it amounting to at least 10,000 foot and
1,000 horse. It was unfit, however, for any great
undertaking, not being furnished with above three
weeks' victual. Monroe advanced with it into the
county of Cavan, from whence he sent parties into
Westmeath and Longford, which burnt the country,
and put to the sword all the country people that they
\\\Qt.'— Carte's Ormond, i. 495.

The following massacre took place upon the hill
above Rathcoole, It was one of the few instances
which savoured of retaliation ; but it was so horrible,
that I cannot refrain from giving the particulars, as
stated by Colonel Mervyn Touchet to his brother
Lord Castlehaven. Sir Arthur Loftus, governor of
Naas, marched out with a party of horse, which was
joined by another party sent from Dublin by the
Marquis of Ormond, and killed such of the Irish as
they met.

" But the most considerable slaughter was in a
great strait of furze, seated on a hill, where the
people of several villages taking the alarm had shel-
tered themselves. Now, Sir Arthur, having invested
the hill, set the furze on fire on all sides, where the
people, being in considerable number, were all burn-
ed or killed, men, women, and children. I saw the
bodies and furze still burning." — Castlehaven's Me-
moirs.

CilAP. III.] . PROOFS, ETC. 185

It is manifest that tliis ^Yas not a solitary instance
of such cruelty. Clarendon treats it as the usual
practice : —

" In the year 1641-2, many thousands of the poor
innocent people of the county of Dublin, shunning
i-he fury of the English soldiers, fled into thickets
and furze, which the soldiers did usually fire, killing
as many as endeavoured to escape, or forced them
back again to be burned, and the rest of the inhabi-
tants for the most part died of famine." — A2Jpendix
of Clarendon's Hist, of the Irish Heh., Wilford, Lon-
don, 1720.

This horrible roasting alive of the inhabitants of
several villages serves only to relieve by its variety
the sanguinary slaughter of the sword.

Let us now turn to another scene. Two quotations
more from Carte will show, how the insurrection in
Munster was, according to the technical phrase, "made
to explode." That is, how the people were compelled
to take arms in their own defence. They will also
show the active humanity of the Catholic clergy, and
of many of the Catholic laity, at that disastrous pe-
riod, wdien — I say it with bitter regret— no such
instances were shown upon the part of the Protestant
clergy or laity.

"It was in the middle of December before any one
gentleman in the province of Munster appeared to
favour the rebellion. Many had shown themselves
zealous to oppose it, and had tendered their services
for that end. Lord Muskerrj^, wdio had married a
sister of the Earl of Ormond's, offered to raise a thou-
sand men at his own charge ; and if the state could
not supply them with arms, he was ready to raise

money by a mortgage of his estate to buy them

Nor did any signs of uneasiness or disaffection appear
among the gentry, till Sir W. St. Leger came to Clon-
mcll, which was on the first of that month, three days
before the action I have just now related." [viz., at a
place called Mohill.] " There had been a few days
before, some robberies (of cattle) committed in the

186 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. III.

county Tipperary Sir W. St. Leger, upon

notice thereof, came in two or three days after with
two troops of horse in great fury to Ballyowen ; and
being informed the cattle were clriven into Eliogarty,
he marched that way. As he set forth, he killed three
persons at Ballyowen, who Avere said to have taken
up some mares of Mr. Kingsmill's ; and not far off,
at Grange, he killed or hanged four innocent labour-
ers ; at Ballj^-O'Murrin, six ; and at Ballygarburt,
eight, and burnt several houses. Nor was it without
great importunity and intercession that he spared the
life of Mr. Morris Magrath, (grandson to Milerus,
Archbishop of Cashel in Queen Elizabeth's time,) a
civil, well-bred gentlemen, it being plainly proved
that he had no hand in the prey, notwitstanding
which proof he stiU kept that gentleman in prison.
From thence Captain Peisley marching to Armaile,
kiUed there seven or eight poor men and women
whom he found standing abroad in the streets near
their own doors inoffensively. And passing over the
river Ewyer, early in the morning, marched to Clon-
oulta, where meeting Philip Ryan, the chief farmer of
the place, a very honest and able man, not at all con-
cerned in any of the robberies, going with his plough-
iron in a peaceable manner to the forge, he, without
any inquiry, either gave orders for, or connived at his
being killed, as appeared by his cherishing the mur-
derer. From thence he went to Goellyn bridge, where
he killed and hanged seven or eight of Dr. Gerald
Fennell's tenants, honest inhabitants of the place, and
burned several houses in the town." — Carte's Ormond,
i. 265.

The Catholic nobility and gentry of Munster re-
monstrated with St. Leger. This was his answer : —

" He, in a hasty, furious manner, answered them,
that, they were all rebels, and he would not trust one
soul of them ; but thought it more i)rudent to hang
the best of them.".— C'ar^^', i. 266.

The murders of the Irish went on ; some of the meaner
sort occasionally, as was inevitable. One is not surprised

CHAP, in.] PROOFS, ETC. 187

to hear that some of the kinsmen of the murdered
Philip Ryan, in reprisal for this and other murders,
slew thirteen of the English. But this crime served
to bring out the virtues of the Catholic Irish ; thus
they conducted themselves on that occasion : —

" All the rest of the English were saved by the inha-
bitants of that place in their houses, and had the goods
which they confided to them safely restored. Dr.
Samuel PuUen, [Protestant] Chancellor of Cashel and
Dean of Clonfert, with his wife and children, was pre-
served by Father James Saul, a Jesuit. Several other
Romish priests distinguished themselves on this occa-
sion by their endeavours to save the English ; parti-
cularlarly F. Joseph Everard and Redmond English,
both Franciscan friars, who hid some of them in their
chapel, and even under their altar The Eng-
lish w^ho were thus preserved, were according to their
desire, safely conveyed into the county of Cork, by a
guard of the Irish inhabitants of Cashel." — Carte's
Ormond, vol. i. p. 267.

I will now revert to the proofs given by the Eng-
lish parliament of their malignant enmity towards the
unhappy natives of Ireland. The following extract is
taken by Rushworth from the Journals of the English
House of Commons : —

" October 24, 1644. — An ordinance of the Lords and
Commons assembled in parliament, commanding that
no officer or soldier, either by sea or land, shall give
any quarter to an Irishman, or to any Papist born in
Ireland, which shall be taken in arms against the par-
liament of England :

" The Lords and Commons assembled in the parlia-
ment of England do declare, that no quarter shall be
given to any Irishman, or any Papist born in Ireland,
which shall be taken in hostility against the parlia-
ment, either upon sea, or within this kingdom, or
dominion of Wales : and therefore do order and
ordain that the Lord General, Lord Admiral, and all
other officers and commanders both by sea and land,
shall except all Irishmen, and all Papists born in Ire-

188 OBSERVATIONS, [CIIAP. III.

land, out of all capitulations, agreements, and compo-
sitions hereafter to be made with the enemy ; and
shall, upon the taking of every such Irishman and
Papist iDorn in Ireland as aforesaid, forthwith put
every such person to death.

•' And it is further ordered and ordained, that the
Lord General, Lord Admiral, and the Committes of
the several counties, do give speedy notice hereof to
subordinate officers and commanders by sea and land
respectively ; who are hereby required to use their
utmost care and circumspection that this ordinance be
duly executed ; and lastly, the Lords and Commons
do declare, that every officer and commander by sea or
land, that shall be remiss or negligent in observing
the tenor of this ordinance, shall be reputed a favourer
of the bloody_ rebellion in Ireland, and shall be liable
to such condign punishment as the justice of both
houses of parliament shall inflict upon him." — Mush-
loorth, vol. V. p. 783. ^

The folloAving specimen of the readiness with which
this cruelty was anticipated by national antipathy,
and carried into effect against Ireland, is full of
horror : —

" The Earl of Warwick, and the officers under him
at sea, had, as often as he met with any Irish frigates,
or such freebooters as sailed under their commission,
taken all the seamen who became prisoners to them of
that nation (Ireland,) and bound them back to back,
and thrown them overboard into the sea, without
distinction of their condition, if they were Irish. In
this cruel manner very many poor men perished
daily ; of which the King said nothing, because . . .
his Majesty could not complain of it without being
concerned in the behalf and in favour of the rebels of
Ireland." — Clarendon, ii. 478.

^ Clarendon is, of course, anxious to excuse or pal-
liate the conduct 'of Charles — but how does his excuse
aggravate the demoniacal disposition of the English
aristocracy and gentry, as well as of the people in
general, towards the Irish"? Let any reasonable man

CHAP. III.] PROOFS, ETC. 189

but reflect for one moment on these deliberate cruel-
ties— cruelties not committed in the rage of fight or
in the heat of blood.

Here were Protestant Christians — English Protes-
tant Christians — coolly and calmly going through the
slow process of tying back to back, and then delibe-
rately drowning a number of their fellow creatures —
merely because they had them in their power, and
because they were Irish !

There is nothing new under the sun ! The drown-
ing of the loyalists in France, the " noyades," as they
were called, by the revolutionary monster Carrier, and
his colleagues, had their precedent in the conduct of
Englishmen to Irishmen. But what a difference
between the cases ! Carrier was a low-born, vulgar
monster — an avowed Atheist. He affected no con-
scientious scruples — he was a godless WTetch. But
the English who perpetrated these cruelties were
" noblemen" and " gentlemen" — men (in their way) of
fervent piety ! with the Bible — the Word of God — in
their hands ; with prayer upon tlieir lips ; proclaimed
themselves the disciples of the God of mercy and of
charity. Yes, they were " English Protestant Chris-
tians"— they, who, even in the name of that God, com-
mitted these barbarous cruelties !

Indignation and execration are vain. What coun-
try ever inflicted on another such ineffable cruelties
as England has inflicted on Ireland % Let me give
another instance in which the bloody orders of the
English Commons were anticipated. In the month of
May, A.D. 1644—

', The Marquis of Ormond had sent Captain An-
thony Willoughby ^\^th 150 men, which had formerly
served in the fort of Galway, from thence to Bristol.
The ship which carried them was taken by Swanley,
w^ho was so inhuman as throw seventy of the soldiers
overboard, under the pretence that they were Irish ;
though they had faithfully served liis Majesty against
the rebels during all the time of the war." —
Carte, I. 481.

190 OBSERVATIONS. [CHAP. III.

Some may possibly be so absurd as to suppose
that Captain Swanley was punished for these bru-
talities. He had barbarously assassinated faithful sol-
diers, serving their King and their country. He had
basely assassinated them, for no other reason than
that they were Irish. How did the representatives
of the English people treat themi Recollect that
these representatives were the chosen spirits of the
age — the master minds of England — the advocates of
liberty — and the zealous promoters of (what they
called) religion. Listen, Englishmen ; attend Pro-
testants ; my authority is no less than the Jour-
nals of your House of Commons. Here is the
fact : —

"June, 1644," (the next month after his murder-
ous outrage,) " Captain Swanley was called into tke
[English] House of Commons, and had thanks given
nim for his good service ; and a chain of gold of two
hundred pounds value ; and Captain Smith, his
vice-admiral, had another chain of £100 value." —
Journals, III. 617.

^ It will be borne in mind that I am making selec-
tions— not giving all the instances of cruelty ; no, nor
probably the one-thousandth part of them. It is on
that account alone that I quit the navy, ^ and give
another specimen of the English land-service. Just
mark, I pray you, the mode of procuring the esteem
of parliament : —

" Sir Richard Grenville ..... was very much es-
teemed by the Earl of Leicester, and more by the par-
liament for the signal acts of cruelty he did every day

commit upon the Irish hanging old men who

were bedrid, because they would not discover where
their money was that he believed they had ; and
old women, some of quality, after he had plundered
them, and found less than he expected." — Clarendon^
IL p. 414.

We must ever bear carefully in mind, that a large
portion of the astounding horrors and diabolical crimes
committed against Ireland by England, were confess-

CHAP. III.] PROOFS, ETC. 191

edly perpetrated for the support, and on the behalf of
the " Protestant Religion."

In 1643, a cessation of hostilities had been pro-
claimed in Ireland, which was equally desirable to
the wretched King, and to the Irish people. The
reader will remember, that, in the reign of Eliza-
beth, Spenser had recommended the destruction of
provisions, in order that the Irish might be driven by
famine " to devour each other." Spenser's diobolical
policy (which had been acted upon at the time) was
now revived, and patronized by the Protestant par-
liament of England. That parliament deemed it con-
ducive to the interest of the Protestant religion, that
the Irish Catholics should be compelled by famine
" to eat one another." Accordingly the cessation of
hostilities —

" Was no sooner known in England, but the two
houses declared against it, with all the sharp glosses
upon it to his Majesty's dishonour that can be ima-
gined; persuading the people that the rebels were
now brought to their last gasp, and reduced to so ter-
rible a famine, that, like cannibals, they eat one
another ; and must have been destroyed immediately,
and utterly rooted out, if, by the popish counsels at
court, the King had not been persuaded to consent to
this cessation." — Clarendon, II. 323.
^ That the persecuting bigotry of Protestantism de-
liberately purposed to prolong the horrible famine
thus described, as a means of strengthening and pro-
pagating the Protestant religion, is a fact of which
the record stands upon the journals of the English
parliament : —

" Sept. 20, 1643. It was resolved, upon the question,
that this house doth hold that a present cessation of
arms with the rebels in Ireland is destructive to the
Protestant religion." — Journals, III. 248.
^ Rushworth's testimony adds the fullest confirma-
tion (if any were wanted) to the fact, that these
horrors were quite congenial with the Protestant bi-
gotry of the English Legislature. Here are his words : —

192 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. III.

"The Lords and Commons have reason to declare
against this plot and design of a cessation of arms, as
being treated and carried on without their advice ; so
also because of the great prejudice which will thereby
redound to the Protestant religion, and the encourage-
ment and advancement which it will give to the prac-
tice of popery, when these rebellious Papists shall, by
this agreement, continue and set up with more free-
dom their Idolatrous worship, their popish supersti-
tions, and Romish abominations, in all the places of
their command, to the dishonouring of God, the grie-
ving of all true Protestant, hearts th^ dissolving of the
laws of the Crown of England, and to the provoking
the wrath of a jealous God! as if both kingdoms had
not smarted enough already for this sin of too much
conniving at, and tolerating of antichristian idolatry,
under pretext of civil contracts and politic agreements."
— Eushworth, V. 557.

Oh, Protestantism ! what unspeakable horrors and
miseries — what demoniac persecutions — have been
inflicted in your name upon the Catholic people of
Ireland !

Let us now come back to Sir Charles Coote the
elder. Here is an additional accusation brought
against him. There is no doubt stated as to the fact
of the monstrous cruelty ; the only question is, as to
his mode of expression. There is no doubt that he
did not prevent the cruelty ; and independently of
the authority, it is difficult to doubt the expression.
At all events the poor babe in question was brutally
massacred. This act of English friendship was per-
petrated : —

" Tuesday, December 7th, a party of foot being sent
out into the neighbourhood of Dublin in quest of
some robbers that had plundered a,n house at Buskin,
came to the village of Santiy, and murdered some
innocent husbandmen, (whose heads they brought into
the city in triumph, and among which were one or
two Protestants,) under pretence that they had har-
boured and relieved the rebels who had made inroads

CKA.P. III.J PROOFS, ETC. 1G3

and committed depTedatioiis in those parts. Hard
was the case of the country people at this time, when
not being able to liindcr parties of robbers and rebels
breaking into their houses and taking refreshments
there, this should be deemed a treasonable act, and
sufficient to authorize a massacre. This following so
soon after the executions, which >Sir CHiarles Coote
.... had ordered in the county of Wicklow ; among
which, when a soldier was carrying about a poor babe
on the end of his pilie, he," [namely, Coote] " was
charged with saying that he liked such frolics, made
it presently be imagined that it was determined to
proceed against all suspected persons in the same
nndistinguishtid way of cruelty ; and it served either
for an occasion or pretence to some Roman Catholic
gentlemen of the county of Dublin (among which
were Luke Nettervile, George Blackney, and George
King) to assemble together at Swords, six miles fi'om
Dublin, and put themselves with their followers in a
posture of defence." — Cartes Ormond, i. 244-5.

Let me give another specimen of the merits of one
of Coote's coadjutors ; his efforts were directed to
produce that hideous famine which the English par-
liament deemed of such utility to the Protestant reli-
gion :—

'' xVmong the several acts of public service per-
formed by a regiment of Sir William Cole, consisting
of 500 foot and a troop of horse, we find the following
hideous article recorded by the historian Borlase, with
particular satisfaction and triumph : —

" ' Starved and famished of the vulgar sort, whose
goods were seized on by this regiment, seven thou-
sand.' " — Leland, Book v. chap. 5 {note).

To come back for the last time to Coote himself-
I take the following extract from a pamphlet entitled
•' A Collection of some of the ]Massacres and Murders
committed on the Irish in Ireland, since the 23rd of
October, 1641 :"—

" Counti/ of J/ea^/i— 1642.— Mr. Barnewall, of To-
bertinian, and Mr. John Ilussey, innocent persons,

N

194 oBSErvVATiONs, [chap. III.

■were hanged at Trim by old Sir Charles Coote's party.
Gerald Lynch of Danower, aged 80 years, was killed
by troopers of Trim, being in protection. Mr. Thomas
Talbot, of Crawly's Town, about 80 years old, being
protected, and a known servitor to the crown, was
killed at his own door by some of Captain ]\Iorroe's
troop. About the month of April the soldiers under
the said Grenville's command, killed in and about the
Kavan 80 men, women, and children, who lived under
protection. Captain "\Yentworth and his company,
garrisoned at Duno, killed no less than 200 protected
persons in the parish of Donamora Slane, and barony
of Margellion and Ovemorein, the town of Ardmul-
chan, Kingstown, and Harristown, all protected per-
sons."

My next quotation vrill be rather long. It gives
so many particulars of murders committed by the sol-
diers of the garrisons in Meath, thst I am tempted to
give it at length. It is in the same book. I confess
I cannot resist inserting it ; even if it were from
the circumstance alone that it was in that county —
Meath — that the hellish miscreant Sir Charles Coote
mat his death ; it is supposed from one of his own
party.

" in April, (1642), Mrs. Elinor Taafe, of Tullagha-
noge, sixty years old, and six women more, were
murdered by the soldiers of the gamson of Trim ;
and a blind woman, aged eighty j^ears, was encom-
passed with straw by them, to which they set fire and
burned her. The same day they hanged two women in
Kilbride, and two old decrepit men that begged alms
of them. In the same year, Mr. Walter Dulin, an
old man, unable to stir abroad many years before the
war, was killed in his own house by Lieut. Col. Brough-
ton's troopers, notv^dthstanding the said Broughton's
protection, which the old man produced. Mr. Walter
Evers, a justice of the peace and cpiorum, an aged
man, and bedrid of the palsy long before the rebel-
lion, was carried in a cart to Trim, and there hanged
by the governor's orders. Many ploughmen were

CHAP. III.] PROOFS, ETC. 195

killed at PMlbers'towne. Forty men, women, and
children in protection, reaping their harvest in Bones-
town, were killed by a troop of the said garrison ;
who, on the same day, killed Mrs. Alison Read at
Dnnsaughlin, being 80 years old ; and forty persons
more, most of them women and children, shunning
the fury of the said troop, were overtaken and slaugh-
tered. About 70 men, women, and children, tenants
to Mr. Francis M'Ovoy, and under protection, were
killed by Grenville's soldiers, and 160 more in the
parisk of Rathcoare, whereof there was one aged cou-
ple blind about 15 years before. Captain Sandford
and his troop murdered in and about Mulhussey
upwards of 100 men, women, and children, under
protection, and caused one Connar Breslan to be
struck with a knife into the throat, and so bled to
death. And one Eleanor Cusack, 100 years old, was
tied about with lighted matches, and so tortured to
death, in Clonmoghon. James Dowlan, about 100
years old, Donagh Comyn, Darby Denis, Roger Bolan,
and several other labourers and women to the number
of one hundred and sixty, making their harvest, were
slaughtered by the garrison of Trim."

One instance more in Meath ; it is an atrocity com-
mitted by the men under command of Sir Richard
Grenville, whom I have already mentioned : —

Sir Richard Grenville's troop killed 42 men, wo-
men, and children, and eighteen infants, at Dorams-
town. A woman under protection was, by Captain
Morroe's soldiers, put into the stock of a tuckmill,
and so tucked to death." — (From a pamplilet puh-
lished in London, in 1662, entitled "J[ Collection of
the Massacres and Murders committed on the
Irishrj

Let me now place before the reader an account of
the death and funeral of Sir Charles Coote. It is ex-
ceedingly characteristic. Here it is : —

" In April, 1642, pursuing the rebels at Trim, he
was unfortunately shot in the body, as it was thought,
by one of his own troopers, whether by design or acci-

196 OB3EIIVATIOM3, [CHAP. III.

dent was never kijown. And this end had this gallant
gentleman, who began to be so terrible to the enemy,
as his very name was formidable to them. His body
was brought to Dublin, and there interred with great
solemnity, floods of English tears accompanying him
to his grave. By his death the fate of the English in-
terest in Ireland seemed eclipsed, if not buried." —
Borlase's Hist, of the Irish Reh., p. 104.

Floods of English tears ! Floods of English tears !

This one fact at least is certain — that a more
hideous, a more horrible villain never existed. The
French Revolution — fertile in sangiiinary monsters —
produced nothing like him, who spared neither man,
woman, nor child ; neither priest nor layman. Yet this
most superlative of diabolical miscreants was em-
balmed with " English tears !" — " English tears !" How
heartily they wept for the man who was perfect in one
talent — that of shedding Irish blood ! A dry eye at
liis funeral would indeed have been, according to the
modern phrase, " un-English."

We now approach more nearly to the period of
Cromwell's arrival in Ireland, and we may as well pre-
pare for the extracts exhibiting his atrocities, by show-
ing what the intentions of the Irish Government were.
Nothing was so offensive to them as the submission of
the Irish ; their object being the confiscation of the
property and the extermination of tlie persons of the
natives. In this they were in general faithfully aided
by their subordinates.

" The Chief Governors severely condemned

the protection granted to Galway. Their orders were
express and peremptory that the Earl of Ormond
should receive no more submissions : every comman-
der of every garrison was ordered not to presume to
hold any correspondence with the Irish, or Papists ;
to give no protection, but to persecute all rebels, and
their harbourers with fire and sword. In the execu-
tion of these orders the justices declared^ that the sol-
diers slew all persons promiscuously, not sparing the
women, and sometimes not the children." — Le-i^id
book V. chap. 5.

CHAP. III.] PROOFS, ETC. 197

From Galway let us now go to Donegal. Tlic
following are specimens of English humanity in that
county : —

" County of Donegal. — About the same time,'^ (viz.
November, 1641,) Captain Fleming, and other officers
of the said regiment commanding a party, smothered
to death 220 women and children in two caves. And
about the same time also, Captain Cunningham mur-
dered about 63 women and children in the isles of
Ross.

" The Governor of Letterkenny gathered together
on a Sunday morning 53 poor people, most of
them women and children, and caused them to be
thrown off the bridge into the river and drowned
them all.

" In November, one Reading murdered the wife and
three children of Shane O'Morghy, in a place called
Letterkeny of Ramaltan ; and after her death cut off
her breasts with his sword.

" 1641-2. — About two thousand poor labourers, wo-
men, and children, of the barony of Tirbue, were
massacred by the garrisons of Ballyshany and Done-
gal ; and Lieutenant Thomas Poe, an officer among
them, coming under colour of friendship, to visit a
neighbour that lay sick in his bed, and to whom he
owed money, carried a dagger under his cloak, which,
whilst he seemed to bow towards the sick man in a
friendly manner, asking how he did, he thrust it into
his body, and told his wdfe her husband should be no
longer sick. "

I will next introduce the head of the O'Brien fa-
mily, Lord Inchiquin ; I believe the direct ancestor
of the present Marquis of Thomond. He was re-
nowned for his acts of cruelty. He had sought to be
made president of JMunster under the King ; but
having been refused that office, to which another was
appointed, he, from the paltry motive of selfish re-
sentment, joined the English rebels, and committed
the most horrible cruelties upon the Irish. He is cele-
brated in the recollection of the people, even till the

198 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. III.

present day, for his massacres in the Cathedral of
Cashel. There is something very characteristic in the
following traits of his cruelty : —

" Inchiquin commits great destruction as far as he
dares venture, about Dublin and Tredah [Drogheda],
by burning and driving away their cattle, hangs all
he can meet with, going to the Lord Lieutenant." —
Whitelock.

" The Lord Inchiquin took Pilborne castle by storm,
and put all in it but eight to the sword." — Whitelock,

The next fact has "damned him to everlasting fame":

" Inchiquin marched into the county of Tipperary,
and hearing that many priests and gentry about
Cashel had retired with their goods into the Church,
he stormed it, and being entered, put three thousand
of them to the sword, taking the priests even
from under the altar " — Ludloiifs Memoirs,Yo\. I. p. 106.

The massacre of not only men and women, but
even of little children, by the Cromwellian army, is
familiar in the traditions of our peasantry at the pre-
sent day. The common phrase in which these ruffians
justified the slaughter of unoffending infants, is
original in its disgusting phraseology. We have the
odious fact authenticated by the Eev. Dr. Nalson ;
and he too, was a Protestant clergyman. Here are
his words : —

" I have heard a relation of my own, who was
captain in that service, relate, that no manner of
compassion or discrimination was showed either to
age or sex ; but that the little children were promis-
cuously sufferers with the guilty ; and that if any who
had some grains of compassion reprehended the sol-
diers for this unchristian inhumanity, they would
scoffingly reply ' Why, nits will be lice !' and so
would despatch them." — Nalson, vol. II. (Introduc-
tion) p. vii.

To come back to Dublin county. The author of
the " Collection^' speaking of the first week in No-
vember, 1641, says, —

" In the same week, 56 men, women, and children,

CHAP. III.] PROOFS, ETC. 199

of the village of Bulloge, (being frightened at wliat
Avas done at Clontarf,) took boats and went to sea,
to shun tlie fury of a party of soldiers come out of
Dublin under the command of Colonel Crafford : but
being pursued by soldiers in other boats, were over-
taken, and thrown overboard. One -Eussell, a baker
in Dublin, coming out of the country, in company
with Mr. Archbold of Clogram, (who went to take
hold of the proclamation of the lords justices,) were
both hanged and quartered. In March, a party of
horse, of the garrison of Donshaghlin, murdered seven
or eig-ht poor people in protection, tenants of Mr.
Dillon, of Huntstowne, having quartered in their
houses the night before, and receiving such entertain-
mcEt as the poor people could afford. About the
same time a party of the English quartered at Mala-
hyde, hanged a servant of Mr. Robert Boyne's at the
plough, and forced a poor labourer to hang his own
brother ; and soon after they hanged 15 of the iijhabi-
tauts of Swords who never bore arms, in the orchard
of Malahyde ; they likewise hanged a woman be-
moaning her husband hanged among them."

There is an incident of some interest given by the
same author, immediately following my last extract.
It relates to the cause why a Colonel Washington re-
signed his command and quitted the service. Its date
is the same year — 1641 : —

" In the same year, after quarter given by Lieu-
tenant Colonel Gibson to those of the castle of Carrig-
main, they were all put to the sword, being about
350, most of them women and children ; and Colonel
Washington, endeavouring to save a pretty child of
seven years old, carried him under his cloak, but the
child, against his will, was killed in his arms, which
was a principle motive of his quitting that ser-
vice."

Several of the extracts already quoted, relate to
periods subsequent to Cromwell's arrival in Ireland.
The following extract refers to a period long before
that arrival : —

200 OBSEEVATIOXS, [cHAP. III.

" Sir Henry Ticlibonrne, ^Yllo had the chief wm-
niaiid in that dmdng of O'Nial from Dundalk, per-
formed that service, and afterwards pursued it with
such an amazing slaughter of the Irish in those parts,
that he boasts himself that for some weeks after there
was neither man nor beast to be found in sixteen
miles, between the two towns of Drogheda and Dun-
dalk ; nor on the other side of Dundalk in the cainty
of Monaghan, nearer than Carrickmacross, a strong
pile twelve miles distant." — Carte's Ormond.

I shall add to my catalogue the following, which I
take from Borlase, than whom a more hostile witness
could not be cited. I shall only mention one in Con-
naught, and two or three in Munster : —

" tSir Frederick Hamilton," says Borlase, " enter-
ing Sligo about the first of July, 1642, burnt the
town, and slew in the streets three hundred of the
Irish." — Borlase, p. 112.

Here are the instances referring to Munster : —

"Lord Dungarvan and Lord Broghill summoning
the castle of Ardmore in the county of Waterford, 21st
of August, 1642, it was yielded upon mercy. Never-
theless, one hundred and forty men were put to the
sword.'^ — Borlase, p. 111.

AVe cannot, therefore, \vonder that this Lord Brog-
hill on another occasion declared : —

"That he knew not what quarter meant." — Bor-
lase, p. 110.

Before I proceed further, I wish to give one ex-
tract from tlie relation of the many massacres corn-
knitted in Munster. The county of Cork has claims
upon me, and perhaps it is therefore that I cannot
a\-oid multiplying my instances with the following
quotation : —

''CounUjCork.—\Qi± At Cloghnekilty about 238
men, women, and children were murdered, of which
number 17 children were taken by the legs by soldiers
who knocked out their brains against the _ walls.
This was done by Phorbis's men, and the garrison of
Bandon Bridge."

CHAP. IIl.J PROOFS, ETC. 201

" The English party of this county burned O'SuJ-
livan Beare's houses in Bantiy, and in all the rest of
that country, killing man, woman, and cliild, turning
laany in to their houses then on fire to be burned
therein ; and among others Thomas De Bucke, a
cooper, about 80 years old, and his wife being little
less ; and all this was done without provocation, the
said 0"Sullivan being a known reliever of the English
in that country. Observe that this county is not
charged in the late Abstract with any murders."

In honour of Bandon, I insert the following sh5rt
extract : —

" 1641. At Bandon Bridge, the garrison there tied
88 Irishmen of the said town, back to back, and threw
them off the bridge into the river, where they were all
drowned.'' — Coll., p. 5.

We will now go b;ick a little. The first great
slaughter that occurred in the civil war after the Irish
were driven into insurrection — (and never were such
pains taken to compel an unwilling people to rise
against a Government as were taken by the Adminis-
tration in Ireland to force the Irish to resist their
tyranny !) — is the incident I am now going to describe.
It is taken from the " Collection^' and rec[uires no pre-
face to excite attention. It was the fruitful source
of many a crime. The following is the Irish
account : —

" 1641. About the beginning of November, the
English and Scotch forces at Knockfergus murdered
in one night aU the inhabitants of the territory of the
Island ^lagee, to the number of about 3,000 men,
women, and children, all innocent persons, at a time
v.hen none of the Catholics of that country were in
arms or rebellion. — Note, that this Avas the first
massacre committed in Ireland of either side."

Now, I will place in juxtaposition with the above
the English Protestant account of the same transaction :

" In one fatal night, they [the garrison of Carrick-
fergus] issued from Carrickfergus into an adjacent
district called Island ^lagee, where a number of the

202 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. III.

poorer Irish resided, unoffending, and untainted by the
rebellion. If we may believe one of the leaders of
tliis party, thirty families were assailed by them in
their beds, and massacred with calm and deliberate
cruelty." — Leland, Book V. chap. 3.

There is no substantial difference between these two
accounts. The difference in the number of the slain
is easily accounted for by recollecting that upon that
point the Irish would naturally be the better informed.
Both agree in the circumstances of this most unpro-
voked and diabolical massacre. The inhabitants of
the district of Island Magee, innocent, unoffending —
unarmed ; without a shadow of crime, or the least
suspicion of guilt, were attacked at night in their
beds, by English and Scotch soldiers, commanded and
led on by their officers ; and put to death with calm
and deliberate cruelty. Talk of the barbarity of un-
educated savages in any part of the globe ! you can-
not find it exceeding this deliberate slaughter, com-
mitted by English and Scotch Protestant soldiers on
unarmed beings, who admittedly were guilty of no
other crime than that of being Irish Catholics !

One or two facts more, touching the manner in
which those English and Scotch soldiers conducted
themselves in that country. I take it from the same
" Collection " I have quoted already : —

" Mr. M'Naghten having built a small fortress in the
said county (Antrim) to preserve himself and his
followers from outrages, until he understood what the
cause of the then rebellion was ; as soon as Colonel
Campbell came near with part of the army, he sent
to let him know that he would come to him with his
party, which he did ; and they were next day mur-
dered to the number of eighty, by Sir John Clotworthy,
now Lord Massareen's soldiers."

" About the same time, one hundred poor women
and children were murdered in one night, at a place
called Balliaghuin, by direction of the English and
Scotch officers commanding in that country."

[ now come to the master-demon ; he who steeped

CHAP. III.] PROOFS, ETC. 203

his hands in the blood of his Sovereign, and came to
Ireland reeking from that crime ; in order, by horrible
cruelties committed on the Irish, to acquire popu-
larity in England And he did so acquire it, until it
was sufficient to confer upon him regal power, and to
enable him to place his hand upon that throne which
he had not moral courage to occupy. I begin with
an extract of the taking of Wexford ; although, in
point of time, this was the second town in which he
displayed his barbarity. The following is the short
and pithy account of this transaction by the Protestant
clergyman, Doctor Warner :• —

" As soon as Cromwell had ordered his batteries to
play on a distant quarter of the town, on his summons
being rejected, Stafford (the commander of the
garrison) admitted his men into the castle, fronj
whence issuing suddenly, and attacking the wall and
gate adjoining, they were admitted, either through the
treachery of the townsmen or the cowardice of the
soldiers, or perhaps both ; and the slaughter was
ahnost as great as at Drogheda." — Warner, 476.

The more recent historian. Dr. Lingard, has added
from the original authorities, the following most
striking and melancholy circumstance : —

" No distinction was made between the defenceless
inhabitant and the armed soldier ; nor could the
shrieks and prayers of three hundred females, who had
gathered round the great cross, preserve them from
the swords of those ruthless barbarians. By Cromwell
himself the number of the slain is reduced to two, by
some writers it has been swelled to five thousand." —
Lingard, a.d. 1649.

Three hundred women screaming for pity, round the
emblem of salvation — the cross. Three hundred Irish
women slaughtered in one mass — by English Pro-
testant "Christians" — men of great zeal and profound
piety !

I now come back to Drogheda. And as the slaughter
there is a subject to be dwelt upon, I will give three
different versions of it ; I do so, because each contains

204 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. III.

some circumstances not specified in tlie others. Here
are the accounts of Carte and Leland : —

" The assault was given, and Jiis (Cromwell's) men
twice repulsed ; but in this third attack, Colonel Wall
being unhappily killed at the head of his regiment, his
men were so dismayed thereby, as to listen, before
they_ had any need, to the enemy offering them quarter,
admitting them (viz. Cromwell's army) upon those
terms, and thereby betraying themselves and their
fellow-soldiers to the slaughter. All the officers and
soldiers of Cromwell's army promised quarter to such
as would lay down their arms, and performed it as
long as the place held out ; which encouraged others
to yield. But when they had once all in their power
and feared no hurt that could be done them, Cromwell,
being told by Jones, that he had now all the flower of
the Irish army in his hands, gave orders that no
quarter should be given ! So that his soldiers were
forced, many of them against their will, to kill their
prisoners ! The brave governor, Sir A. Aston, Sir
Edward Verney, the Colonels Warren, Fleming, and
Byrne, were killed in cold blood ; and indeed all the
officers, except some few of least consideration, that
escaped by miracle. The Marquis of Ormond, in his
letters to the king and Lord Byron, says, ' that on this
occasion Cromwell exceeded himself, and anything he
had ever heard of, in breach of faith and bloody
inhumanity ; and that the cruelties exercised there for
five days after the town was taken, would make as
many several pictures of inhumanity as the Book of
Martyrs or the Relation of Amboyna.'"— 6'ar^e, II.
84. Leland adds—

" A number of ecclesiastics were found within the
walls ; and Cromwell, as if immediately commissioned
to execute divine^ vengeance on the ministers of
idolatry, ordered his soldiers to plunge their weapons
into the helpless wretches." — Leland, Book vi. chap. 4.

I next shall give the account of Lord Clarendon.
Here it is :

" Before the Marquis of Ormond could draw Lis

PROOFS, ETC. 205

army together, Cromwell liad besieged Tredali"
[Drogheda] : " and though the garrison was so strong
m point of number, and that number of so choice
men ^at they could wish for nothing more than that
the enemy would attempt to take them by storm ; the
very next day after he came before the town, he gave
a general assault, and was beaten off with considerable
loss. But after a day more, he assaulted it again in
two places, with so much courage that he entered in
both ; and though the governor and some of the chief
officers retired in disorder into a fort where they
hoped to have made conditions, a panic fear so pos-
sessed the soldiers, that they threw down their arms
upon a general offer of quarter : so that the enemy
entered the works without resistance, and put every
man, governor, officer, and soldier to the sword : and
the whole army being entered the town, they executed
all manner of cruelty, and put every man that related
to the garrison, and all the citizens who were Irish,
man, woman, and child, to the sword ; and there
being three or four officers of name, and of good fami
lies, who had found some way, by the humanity of
some soldiers of the enemy, to conceal themselves for
four or five days, being afterwards discovered, they
were butchered in cold blood." — Lord Clarendon's
History/, vol. vi. 395.

Let the reader again peruse the above account — It
•is worth any Englishman's while to read it thrice
over. For an Irishman, once would be enough.
I shall now give the statement from Lingard : —
" Aware that the royalists could assemble no army
in the field, he marched to the siege of Drogheda.
The defences of the place were contemptible ; but the
garrison consisted of two thousand five hundred
chosen men, and the governor, 8ir Arthur Aston,
had earned in the civil war the reputation of a bravo
and experienced officer. In two days a breach was
made ; but Aston ordered trenches to be dug within
the wall, and the assailants on their first attempt
were quickly repulsed. In the second, more than a

206 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. III.

thousand men penetrated through the breach; but
they suffered severely for their temerity, and were
driven back with considerable loss. Cromwell now
placed himself at the head of the reserve, and led them
to the assault, animating them mth his voice and
example. In the heat of the conflict, it chanced that
the officer who defended one of the trenches fell ; his
men wavered : quarter was offered and accepted ; and
the enemy, surmounting the breastwork, obtained
possession of the bridge, entered the town, and suc-
cessively overcame all opposition. The pledge which
had been given was now violated ; and, as soon as
resistance ceased, a general massacre was ordered or
tolerated by Cromwell. During five days the streets
of Droghecla ran with blood ; revenge and fanaticism
stimulated the passions of the soldiers : from the gar-
rison they turned their swords against the inhabitants,
and one thousand unresisting victims were immolated
together within the walls of the great church, whither
they had fled for protection." — LingarcVs England^
A.D. 1649.

I believe there is not in the history of Christendom
a more horrible instance of quiet, deliberate cruelty,
systematic and cold-blooded. First, the garrisons
who were promised quarter, and who, on the faith of
that promise, had ceased to resist, were slaughtered
deliberately and in detail. And next the unoffending
inhabitants were for five days deliberately picked out
and put to death — the men the women and even the
little children. And this was done, not by New Zea-
land savages, but by Christian Englishmen — the choice
spirits of the age — men of the most intense piety and
Protestant sanctity — every man of them with his Bible
in one hand and his sword in the other ! Men over-
flowing with Scripture quotations — men fond of
preaching or listening to long sermons — praying long
prayers — full of all that there is of ascetism in their
English Christianity !

Would not these English "Christians" spare the
unarmed citizens % fSurely they could fear no danger

OHAP. III.] PROOFS, ETC. 207

from the hajjless females ? Would they not at least
spare the chikken— the infants'?

Oh, England ! England! in what letters of blood
have you not written your cruel domination in Ire-
land ! It if 'rue that the garrison deserved their fate.
They put ittith in an English promise made to Irish-
men— Sir Arthur Aston, Sir Edward Yerney, Colonel
Byrne, and tlie rest of them. Fie upon them — oh, fie !
They did indeed deserve their fate !

What a trumpet-tongued lesson to Irishmen ! But
such times never can come. again.

There is in this fiendish transaction one colouring
yet wanted, to make the monsters who committed it
more hideous than the devils in hell. It is the colour-
ing of hypocrisy. Let the reader, if he can, calmly
peruse CromweU's own despatch ; and then admit
with me, that human language is utterly inadequate
to descrilDe the ineff'able horror of the English crime.
Here are extracts from Cromwell's despatch to the
Speaker of the House of Commons : —

"Sir,

" It has pleased God to bless our endeavours at
Drogheda

One shudders at such an introduction of the name
of the adorable Creator — the God of mercy and of
charity ! I begin again : —

" Sir,

" It has pleased God to bless our endeavours at
Drogheda. After battering we stormed it. The ene-
my was about 3,000 strong in the town."

Cromwell then goes on to describe shortly the cir-
cumstances of the attack and of the slaughter ; and
coolly says : —

" I believe we put to the sword the whole number
of the defendants. I do not think thirty of the whole
number escaped with their lives ; and those that did,
are in safe custody for the Barbacloes."

He then goes on as follows : —

" This hath been a marvellous great mercy. The
enemy being not willing to put an issue upon a field

208 OBSEP.VATIONS, [CHAP. III.

of battle, had put into tliis garrison almost all their
prime soldiers, being; about 3,000 horse and foot, under
the command of their best officers, Sir Arthur Aston
being made governor. There were some seven or
eight regiments, Ormond's being one, under the com-
mand of Sir Edward Verney. I do not believe, nei-
ther do I hear, that any officer escaped with his life,
save only one lieutenant."

Could any one imagine that human nature could be
so destitute of all that belongs to humanity, or to reli-
gion, as to be capable of calling such cruelty " a mar-
vellous great mercy V Oh, it was truly an English
mercy ! But there is more ; for this is the conclusion
of Cromwell's despatch : —

" I wish that all honest hearts may give the glory of
this to God alone, to whom indeed the praise of ihis
mercy belongs. For instruments they were very in-
considerable to the work throughout.

"0. Cromwell."

The flesh creeps— the heart sinks, at the unparalleled
atrocity, profanity, and blasphemy of such a despatch.
But exclamations weaken the horrors by which we
are thus surrounded.

Perhaps some persons may be found so absurdly
credulous as to believe that the English parliamen t
revolted at the cruelty perpetrated by Cromwell ; and
that they inliicted upon his sanguinary barbarity, if
not punishment, at least censure. No such thing.
The victims were Irish Catholics ; and it is manifest
that the English parliament had not only no sympa-
thy but no humanity for the unhappy natives of
Ireland. To cap the climax of English atrocity, let
the following extract from the Journals of the House
of Commons be read : —

" 1649 — October 2nd. This day the House received
despatches from the Lord Lieutenant Cromwell, dated
Dublin, September 17th, giving an account of the tak-
ing of Drogheda, For this important success of the
parliament's forces in Ireland, the House appointed a
tiianksgiving day to be held on the 1st November

CHAP. III.] PROOFS, ETC. 209

en suing througlioiit the n ation. lliey likewise ordered
that a declaration should be prepared and sent into
the several counties, signifying the grounds for setting
apart that day of public thanksgiving. A letter of
thanks was also voted to be sent to the Lord Lieute-
nant of Ireland ; and to be communicated to the
officers there ; in which notice w^as to be taken, that
the house did approve of the execution done at Dro-
gheda, as an act both of justice to them, aud mercy to
others who may be warned by it." — Parliamentary
Hist V. iii. p. 1334.

I am sickened and disgusted with the hideous cata-
logue of English crimes. I could multiply the in-
stances tenfold ; but I have given enough, and. infi-
nitely more than enough, to satisfy every human being
that no country on the face of the earth ever suffered
50 much from another as Ireland lias suffered from
England : nor is any country on the face of the eartli
so stained with diabolic cruelty as England in her
conduct towards Ireland !

Religious bigotry inflamed and augmented the na-
tional hostility of England to Irishmen. To show
how distinctly the purpose of exterminating the
Catholic people of Ireland for the good of the Pro-
testant religion was avowed by the first authorities in
the State, let me here quote the following testimony
from page 55 of a book of Cromwell's acts, entitled
" Cromwelliana :" —

"April 12, 1640. Those who were appointed to go
to the Common Council about the furnishing <£120,000,
came unto Guildhall. The first that spoke was Mr.
Lisle, after him Mr. Whitlock, who very notably urged
the accommodation of the parliament with the sum ap-
pointed for the service of Ireland : after whom the Lord
Chief Baron AVild did press the same with many argu-
ments, and among others he rightly distinguished the
state of the war in that kingdom as not being between
Protestant and Protestant, or Independent and Pres-
byterian, but Papist and Protestant ; and that was the
interest there; Papacy or Popery being not to be en-

0

210 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. III.

dured in that kingdom ; which notably agreed with that
maxim of King James, when first King of the three
kingdoms ' Plant Ireland with Puritans, and root out
Papists — and then secure it.' "

Cromwell gorged himself with human blood. He
committed the most hideous slaughters ; deliberate,
cold-blooded, persevering. He stained the annals of
the English people with guilt of a blacker dye than
has stained any other nation on earth.

And — after all — for what 1 What did he gain by
it ] Some four or five years of unsettled and preca-
rious power ! And if his hideous corpse was interred
in a royal grave, it was so, only to have his bones
thence transferred to a gibbet !

Was it for this that he deliberately slaughtered
thousands of men, women, and children'? Female
loveliness, and the innocent and beautiful boy — aged
but seven years — of Colonel Washington ]

It has often been said that it was not the people,
but the Government of England, who were guilty of
the attempts to exterminate the Irish nation. The
observation is absurd. The government had at all
times, in their slaughter of the Irish, the approbation
of the English people. Even the present adminis-
tration is popular in England in the precise proportion
of the hate they exhibit to the Irish people ; and this
is a proposition of historic and perpetual truth. But
to the Cromwellian wars, the distinction between the
people and the Government could never apply. These
were the wars, emphatically, of the English people.
They were emphatically the most cruel and murderous
wars the Irish ever sustained.

The natural result of the promiscuous slaughter of
the unarmed peasantiy wherever the English soldiers
coidd lay hold on them, was, as a matter of course, an
appalling famine. The ploughman was killed in the
half-ploughed field. The labourer met his death at
the spade. The haymaker was himself mowed down.
A universal famine, and its necessary concomitant,
pestilence, covered the land. An eye-witness, him-

CHAP. HI.] PEOOFS, ETC. 211

self employed in hunting to death the Irish— has left
the description which follows : and although the
victims were Irish, yet possibly, in the present day,
their miseries may draw a tear from English eyes.
Thus was consummated English Protestant power : —

"About the year 1652 and 1653, the plague and
famine had so swept away whole countries, that a
man might travel twenty or thirty miles and not see
a living creature, either man, beast, or bird ; they
being either all dead, or had quit those desolate
places ; our soldiers would tell stories of the place
where they saw a smoke, it was so rare to see either
smoke by day or fire or candle by night. And
when we did meet vdih two or three poor cabins, none
but very aged men, with women and children, and
those, like the prophet, might have complained, ' We
are become as a bottle in the smoke, our skin is black
like an oven because of the terrible famine.' I have
seen those miserable creatures plucl-'mg stinking car-
rion out of a ditch, black and rotten, .<nd been credibly
informed that they digged corpses .at of the grave to
eat : but the most tragical story I ever heard was from
an officer commanding a party of horse, who, hunting
for tories in a dark night, discovered a light, which
they supposed to be a fire, which the tories usually
made in those waste countries to dress their provisions
and warm themselves ; but dramng near, they found
it a ruined cabin, and besetting it round, some did
alight, and peeping at the window, where they saw a
great fire of wood, and a company of miserable old
women and children sitting round about it, and be-
twixt them and the fire a dead corpse lay broiling,
Y\^hich, as the fire roasted, they cut off coUops, and
eat." — Colonel Laurences Interest of h^eland, part 2,
pp. 86, 87.

Such, I repeat, were the demoniacal means by
which Protestantism and English power achieved and
consummated their ascendency in Ireland.

212 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. III.

CHAPTER III— PAET III.

I HAVE said in the text, that however aggravated and
atrocious the actual cruelties perpetrated by England
on the Irish were, there was a greater cruelty still :
namely, in the slander and calumnies affixed upon the
character and conduct of the Irish people. Alas !
the spirit of calumny lives to the present day. In-
deed, I do not know any spirit of hostility to Ireland
which was ever displayed, which is not still alive and
vigorous. The mode of exhibiting that spirit is dif-
ferent. Its virulence is turned into another channel.
But its existence and vitality are not the less marked
by unequivocal characters.

It was not sufficient for the English party to com-
mit those most horrible atrocities of which I have
collected a small proportion of instances. They car-
ried their malignity farther ; and they accused the
Irish of those very crimes which they themselves
committed upon that unhappy people. It is scarcely
credible — it would not be credible of any other people
except the Irish — that when they were massacred in
tens of thousands, they should be accused of the very
crime that was committed against themselves. Yet
it is literally true.

What Clarendon and Temple originally asserted,
has been, of course, taken up by that infidel falsifier of
history, Hume : and the Catholics of Ireland for more
than a century, were persecuted to the loss of their
lives and properties ; and, what was still more grievous
and afflicting, by the loss of their reputation for that
conduct, which, while it really merited the applause
of all good men, was converted into the imputation of
foul and horrible slaughter.

The charge was brought against the Irish by Cla-
rendon, in these words : —

"On the 23rd of October, 1641, a rebellion broke
out in all parts of Ireland except Dublin, wdiere the
design of it was miraculously discovered the night
before it Avas to be executed. . . But tliat, in the other

CHAP. III.] IT.OOFS, ETC. 213

parts of the kingdom, they observed the time ap-
pointed, not hearing of the misfortune of their friends
m Dublin. . . That a general insurrection of the Irish
spread itself over the whole countrj'- in such an in-
human and barbarous manner, that there were forty
or fifty thousand Protestants murdered before they
suspected themselves in any danger, or could provide
for their defence, by drawing together into towns or
'strong houses." — Hist. jReb.

Temple aggravates the crime. This is his state-
ment : " One hundred and fifty thousand Protestants
were massacred in cold blood, in the first two months
of the rebellion." — Sir John Te7n2Jle, Hist. Irish Reh.

Milton, in the second edition of his Iconoclastes,
has the following passage : —

" The rebellion and horrid massacre of the English
Protestants in Ireland, to the amount of 154,000 in
the province of Ulster only, by their own computa-
tion ; which, added to the other three, makes up the
total sum of that slaughter, in all likelihood, four
times as great."

It is true this passage has been softened in subse-
quent editions ; but the enemies of Ireland had the
full benefit of Milton's falsehood at the very time that
it was most important for them to have it.

One may throw in here, by way of parenthesis, that
it has been demonstrated by Sir William Petty and
others that there could have scarcely been at that
period more than 200,000 Protestants in all Ireland.

It will of course be recollected that the parliamen-
tary party had forced the insurrection to explode, and
had made it purely a religious war. Now, let the
reader look back, at Clarendon, Temple, and Milton :
and then let him look at this extract from another
Protestant historian ; a clergyman of the established
Protestant church, whom I have quoted more than
once already : —

" The number of people killed, upon positive evi-
dence collected in two years after the insurrection
broke out, adding them altogether, amounts only to

214 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. III.

two thousand one hundred and nine ; on the reports
of other Protestants, one thousand six hundred
and nineteen more ; and on the report of some of the
rebels themselves a further number of three hundred ;
the whole making four thousand and twenty-eight." —
Warner, p. 297.

Thus — upon positive evidence, and upon evidence
of mere report, which latter is the thing in the Avorld
the most exaggerating ; and after all the provocation
which the Irish had sustained— is it not marvellous,
that in and out of battle, there should have been re-
turned as killed (and that too, by adding to authentic
fact the evidence of rumour,) a number of Protestants
altogether amounting to only twenty- eight more than
four thousand in two full years of civil war 1 And
this fact vouched, not by a Catholic or an Irishman,
but by an English Protestant clergyman ; a Fellow,
by-the-bye, of the Protestant University of Dublin !

Notwithstanding all this, for considerably more
than a century after the Restoration, the Cathohcs of
Ireland were set down as wholesale murderers, and
were charged with murdering 50,000 Protestants on
the 23rd of October, 1641. And this atrociously false
calumny was reiterated in books and pamphlets, in
speeches and sermons and acts of parliament! The
arch-liar, Hume, the man who of all historians is
least to be relied on — for throughout his history
scarcely one fact is stated accurately — has given great
circulation to this enormous falsehood ; and he is the
more criminal, inasmuch as shortly after the appear-
ance of the volume of his history containing the reign
of Charles the First, documents were furnished to him
demonstrating the utter falsehood of his account of
the alleged massacre. But all in vain. The immoral
infidel adhered to his falsehood, as it gave a greater
interest to his fictitious history.

At the present day, however, no writer of character
would venture to repeat the calumny. The horrible
charge fulfilled the purpose for which it was intended.
And the odious practice of falsely imputing crime to

CHAP. III.] PROOFS, ETC. 21.5

Catholics has partially ceased among the better class
of English — and altogether in the better class of
American writers.

Dr. Lingard, whose work is the only one that
deserves the name of a history of England, has, in his
text, very properly omitted all mention of what is
called " the Irish massacre." He has thrown into his
notes the reason for this omission. It is impossible
for any one to read that reason, without the most
thorough conviction of the utter falsehood of the story
told by Clarendon and Temple. It will be recollected
that Clarendon places the "great massacre" as having
occurred suddenly on the 23rd of October. It is only
requisite to read the following extracts from Lingard's
Notes, borne out by the authorities which he so dis-
tinctly quotes, to be fully convinced that the alleged
massacre of the 23rd of October is purely a fiction : —

" We have the despatches [of the Lords Justices]
of October the 25tli ; with the accompanying docu-
ments (Lords' Journals, iv. 412 ; Xalson, ii. 514 —
523) : but in these there is no mention of any one
murder. After detailing the rising, and plundering
by the insurgents, they add, ' This, though too much,
is all that we yet hear is done by them." — Journals,
ibid, Nalson, ii. 516." — Linfjard, x. 464, note (a.)

The next, perhaps, is more convincing still. For it
shows that the Lords Justices carefully record the
murder of ten of the garrison of the Lord Moore's
house at Mellifont : —

"In the fourth [despatch] of November 25, they
describe the progress of the rebellion. ' In both coun-
ties, as well Wickloe as Wexford, all the castles
and houses of the English, with all their substance,
are come into the hands of the rebels ; and the English,
with their wives and children stript naked, are banished
thence by their fury and rage. The rebels in the
county Longford do still increase also, as well in their
numbers as in their violence. The Ulster rebels are
grown so strong, as they have sufficient men to leave
behind them in the places they have gotten north-

216 OBSEKVATIOKS, [cHAP. III.

Avard, and to lay siege to some not yet taken ....
Tliey have already taken IMellifont, tlie Lord Moore's
house, though with a loss of about 120 men of theirs,
and there, in cold blood, they murdered ten of those
that manfully defended that place. In the county of
Meath also, the rebels rob and spoil the English
Protestants till within six miles of Dublin.' — (Ibid.
p. QOO.y'—Lmgard, x. 466, note (a.)

The next extract, if possible, more fully corrobo-
rates the fact that no general massacre could possibly
have taken place. It contains, to be sure, an accusa-
tion of great inhumanity on the part of the Irish.
But let it be remarked that an accusation is not proof
of the fact alleged* whereas this species of accusa-
tion demonstrates that another, and a worse accusa-
tion, was not withheld : it proves the readiness to
accuse the Irish, whether truly or falsely, of all that
could possibly be brought against them ; but it docs
not accuse them of the slaugliter by the sword of a
single Protestant.

It is also observable, that during all this time these
Lords Justices themselves were, by means of Sir
(Jharles Coote and their other minions, putting to
death in cold blood all the Irish Catholics — armed
and unarmed — men, women, and children, that came
Avithin their reach. These villains had therefore the
deepest interest in falsely accusing the Irish of cinielty.
It is manifest that nothing could gratify them more
than being able to substantiate against the Irish the
charges of massacre or murder. The absence of any
such charge is indeed a trumpet-tongued acquittal : —

" We have a fifth despatch of November 27th :—

" The disturbances are now grown so general, that
in most places, and even round about this city within
four miles of us, not only the open rebels of mere
Irish, but the natives, men, women, and children,
joyn together and fall on the neighbours that are
English and Protestants, and rob and spoil them of
all they have, nor can w^e help it." — Nalso7i, 902. —

" I shall add a sixth, of December 14th—' They con-

CIIAr. III.] PPvOOFS, ETC. 217

tiniie tlieir rage and malignity against the English
and Protestants, wlio if they leave their goods or
cattle for more safety with any Papists, those are called
ont by the rebels, and the Papists' goods or cattle left
behind ; and now npon some new councils taken by
them, they have added to their former, a farther de-
gree of cruelty, even of the highest nature, which is to
proclaim, that if any Irish shall harbour or relieve any
English, that be suffered to escape them with his life,
that it shall be penal even to death to such Irish ; and
so they will be sure though they put not those English
actually to the sword, yet they do as certainly and
with more cruelty cut them off that way, than if they
had done it by the sword ; and they profess they will
never give over till they leave not any seed of an
Englishman in Ireland. — (/6icZ. p. 911.)" — Lingard, X.
467, note (a).

There remains another proof afforded by the lords
justices, of the utter falsehood of Clarendon's and
Temple's narrative. Here it is : —

" On the 23rd of December the same lords justices
granted a commission to Henry Jones, Dean of Kil-
more, and seven other clergymen in these words :

' Know ye that we do hereby give unto you

full power and authority to call before you,

and examine upon the holy Evangelists as

well all such persons as have been robbed and spoil-
ed, as all the witnesses that can give testimony
therein, what robberies and spoils have been com-
mitted on them since the 22nd of October last, or
shall hereafter be committed on them, or any of
them ; what the particulars were, or are, whereof
they were or shall be so robbed or spoiled ; to what
value, by whom, what their names were, or where
they nov\^ or last dwelt that committed these rob-
beries. On what day or night the said robberies or
spoils committed or to be committed, w^eredone ; what
traitorous or disloyal words, speeches, or actions were
then, or at any other time, uttered or committed by
those robbers or any of them, and how often ; and all

218 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. III.

other circumstances concerning the said particulars,
and every of them. And you, our said commissioners,
are to reduce to writing all the examinations, and
the same to return to our justices and council
of this our realm of Ireland." — Temiile^ Irish Beh.
137.

It is utterly incredible that if there liad been any
massacre of Protestants by the Irish, an enquiry into
that most important subject should have been totally
omitted in such a commission as the above. Indeed
it would have necessarily been the leading feature in
an inquisition of that description. Yet — such a com-
mission did issue to inquire into matters, compara-
tively of trivial importance, without so much as
one sinole word respecting the alleged massacre !
This is indeed " the part of Hamlet left out, by specia^"
desire."

jMultiplied proofs would but weaken the demon^.
stration arising from those we have given.

It may be some relief to give specimens of the kind
of evidence adduced to prove the reality of the
alleged massacre. The first I shall give is the follow-
ing extract from Sir John Temple's " History of the
Irish Rebellion ;" —

"Hundreds of the ghosts of Protestants," says Tem-
ple, " that were drowned by the rebels at Portadown
Bridge, were seen in the river bolt upright, and were
heard to cry out for revenge, on these rebels. One of
these ghosts w^as seen with hands lifted up ; and stand-
ing in that posture from the 29th of December to the
latter end of the following lent."

My next specimen is taken from the testimony of
no less a person than a Protestant bishop. And
when a Protestant bishop outrages all that is pro-
bable in order to blacken the Irish Catholics, it would
amuse one to conjecture what the minor inventors of
fables may not do : —

Dr. Maxwell, Protestant bishop of Kilmore, " who,"
says Borlase, " was a person whose integrity and can-
dour none ever dared to question," has described, in

CHAP. III.] PEOOFS, ETC. 219

his own prolix exairiiiiatioii, the dilferent postures and
gestures of these apparitions — (the ghosts of Protes-
tants)— " as having sometimes been seen, by day and
night, walking on the river at Portadown ; sometimes
brandishing their naked swords ; sometimes singing
psalms; and at other times shrieking in a most fear-
ful and hideous manner." This bishop adds, " that
he never heard any man so much as doubt the truth
thereof ; but that he obliged no man's faith in regard
he saw them not with his own eyes ; otherwise he
had as much certainty as could morally be required of
such matters." — Borlast's History of the Irish Bchel'
lion, Ap2Dendix^ p. 392

I close with an emphatic quotation from Warner,
giving the true character of tlie original Protestant
historians of this disastrous period : —

" It is easy enough," says this Protestant clergyman,
"to demonstrate the falsehood of the relation of
every Protestant historian of this rebellion."— War-
ner, p. 296.

CHAPTER III.— PAET lY.

The subject of this fourth part of my illustrations
and proofs, is to bring forth into contrast with the
acts of the English and Protestant party, the conduct
of the Irish Cathcjlics. And here — after having se-
lected so many instances, to which I might have
added hundreds more, of most horrible cruelties per-
petrated by the English Protestant party — I am bound
to say, and I do say it mth the deepest regret, that I
do not find these horrors mitigated by any acts of
general or individual humanity or mercy. It is all
murder on murder — slaughter upon slaughter — mas-
sacre after massacre — men, women, and children. No
staying of the hand — no stopping of the sword ! Nobody
interfering to preserve the victims from assassination ;
or if there be rare instances, like that of Colonel

220 OBSEVATIONS, [cHAP. III.

Washington, who tried to save the child of seven years,
the attempt becomes vain, and the victim is sacrificed.

But with what proud and glowing gratiilation do I
turn to the conduct of the Irish Catholics during the
civil war. I collect from Protestant historians — for
on this subject I shall scarcely use one other — multi-
tudinous facts of lenity, forbearance, and mercy ! of
protection and kindness, of benevolence and charity !
The horrors of w\ar mitigated by the multiplied exer-
cise of the tenderest humanity. 0 ! what a contrast !
Wliat a glorious contrast !

This contrast is rendered still more striking, when
w^e bear in mind that during the time that these vir-
tues were exhibited by the Irish Catholics, the Pro-
testants were committing the horrible cruelties of
which I have cited so many.

On the one side was the demon spirit, animating
the Protestant party to slaughter and death : on the
other was the angelic benevolence of the Catholic
Irish, protecting and rescuing from the sword as
many as possible, of all those whom the actual fight
had spared.

I begin with general testimony borne by Protestant
writers to the humane intentions of the Irish. It was
in Ulster that the insurrection was first made to ex-
plode. In that province, almost all the Protestants
were Scotch. Yet we find preserved by Carte the
following fact. At the commencement of the insur-
rection,—

" The Irish made proclamatien, on pain of death,
that no Scotsman should be molested in body, goods,
or lands." — Cartes Ormond, i. 178.

How well these Scots merited so humane and proper
a determination on the part of the Irish, will be ap-
preciated by those who recollect that it was the gar-
rison of Carrickfergus (chiefly Scotch) that began the
work of massacre, by slaughtering unarmed in their
beds three thousand inhabitants or refugees in Island
Magee !

The next admission is from the profligate Temple ;

CHAP. III.] Pr.OOFS, ETC. 221

an admission so inconsistent with the principal object
of his liistory ! He, too, speaking of the commence-
ment of the insurrection, has this passage : —

" It was resolved " [by the Irish party] " not to kill
any, but where, of necessity, they should be forced
thereunto by opposition." — Temple, p. 65.

Even Leland himself — the anti-Iri.-h, the anti-
Catholic Leland — has, in other words, the same ad-
mission : —

" In the beginning of the insurrection it was deter-
mined " [by the Irish] " that the enterprise should be
conducted in every quarter witli as little bloodshed as
possible." — Leland, v. 3.

The reader will remember that I have cited many
Protestant authorities to shoAv, what indeed no man
acquainted with the history of the times will dream of
denying, that the object of the English party — of tlie
Lords Justices themselves — was to exterminate the
Catholics of Ireland, whether of native Irish, or of
English descent. To remind the reader the more
forcibly of this, I will here just insert one passage
from Carte : —

" The Lords Justices had set their heart on the ex-
tirpation, not only of the mere Irish, but likewise of
all the old English famihes that were Roman Catholics,
and the making of a new plantation all over the king-
dom, in which they could not fail to have a principal
share."— (7a r^f, i. 330.

Yet, it is admitted that the Irish — driven to defend
themselves from extirpation — resolved, as the very
first rule of their conduct, to shed as little blood as
possible !

I have given so many instances of the cruelties per-
petrated by Sir Charles Coote and his son (who was
afterwards created Lord Mountrath for his own and
his father's services,) that I wish to begin my col-
lection of facts illustrating the humanity of the Irish,
with an incident in which his family were concerned.
It is this :

"Lady Mountrath, and Sir Robert Hannah, her

222 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. Ill

father, mth many others, being retreated to Beleek
for security, were all conveyed safe to Mannor Hamil-
ton ; and it is observable, that the said lady, and the
rest, came to Mr. Owen O'Rorke's, who kept a gar-
rison at Drumaheir for the Irish, before they came to
Mannor Hamilton, whose brother was prisoner mth
Sir Frederick Hamilton ; and the said Mr. O'Rorke,
having so many persons of quality in his hands, sent
to Sir Frederick to enlarge his brother, and that he
would convey them all safe to him : but Sir Frederick,
instead of enlarging his brother, hanged him the next
day, which might have well provoked the gentleman
to revenge, if he had not more humanity than could
well be expected upon such an occasion, and in times
of so great confusion : yet he sent them all safe where
they des^iied."— Collection, p. 97.

I doubt much whether there be anything finer than
this, in ancient or modern story. It would seem as
if Sir Frederick Hamilton had been conscious of
O'Rorke's humanity, when he committed the outrage
of executing O'Rorke's brother, whilst that chief had
so many English persons of condition in his hands.
But Sir Frederick was quite safe. O'Rorke was an
Irish Catholic ; and although he endured the murder
of his brother, yet he could not endure to stain his
own soul vdth the blood of a prisoner.

The next specimen I shall give, is that of the con-
duct of the Catholic baronet in Munster. I must say,
that in order to appreciate fully the value of such acts
of humanity, it should be constantly recollected that
the English Protestant party were massacring the
unfortunate Catholics in every direction around them
where they had the power to do so : —

" Sir Richard Everett, baronet, in the beginning of
the rebellion, sent the richest of the English planters
in his country, with their stock and goods, into the
English quarters. The poorer English, consisting of
eighty-eight persons, he kept and maintained at his
own charge till the middle of June, 1642, then con-
veyed them to Mitchelstown ; and when that place

CHAP. III.] PEOOFS, ETC. 223

was afterwards taken by the Irish, he sent for some of
those families that were very poor, and maintained
them for a long time. As soon as the cessation was
made, some of the poor tenants came back to him, and
he settled, and protected them on his laiids, till Crom-
well came into the coiintTj."— Carte's Ormond, vol. i.

The next act illustrative of Irish humanity, I shall
bring before the reader, is one that occurred in the
county of Cavan, where the civil war raged, and of
course some Protestants lost their lives, which Carte
calls "being murdered." Let it be so. I am not dis-
posed to mitigate tlie shedding of blood, even by the
use of a word : —

" By the humanity of Mr. Philip O'Reilly, one of
the most considerable chiefs of the rebels, scarce any
murders were committed in the county of Cavan.
Such of the Protestants as put themselves under his
protection, were safely conveyed into the English
quarters ; and those that were stript and in necessity,
he fed and clothed till they were sent away. Among
these was Mr. Henry Jones, a nephew of Primate
Ussher, and Dean of Kilmore, who, although he
Afterwards turned a noted partizan of Cromwell's, was
promoted to the see of Clogher, and thence, after the
Restoration, to the see of Meath." — Carte's Ormond,
vol. i.

I have already, in page 186, in stating the atrocious
cruelties perpetrated in the county Tipperary by the
English Protestant party, mentioned the murder in
cold blood, and unprovoked, of Mr. Philip Ryan and
several others. I have also mentioned that the inhabi-
tants retaliated by murdering thirteen of the English
party. The following paragraph made part of my
quotation, but it is so very suitable to my present sub-
ject, that I think it a duty to repeat it here : —

"All the rest of the English were saved by the
inhabitants of that place in their houses, and had the
goods which they confided to them safely restored.
Dr. Samuel Pullen, Chancellor of Cashel and Dean of
Clonfert, with his wife and children, was preserved by

224 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. III.

Father James Saul, a Jesuit. Several other Eomish
priests distinguished themselves on this occasion by
their endeavours to save the English ; particularly
r. Joseph Everard and Redmond English, both Fran-
ciscan friars, who hid some of them in their chapel,
and even under the altar .... The English who were
thus preserved, were, according to their desire, safely
conveyed into the county of Cork, by a guard of the
Irish inhabitants of Cashel." — Carte's Ormond, vol. i.
p. 267.

In making my selection of instances of the humanity
shown by the Catholic partj^, I think the following
has an interest about it, which gives it a title to
})articular notice : —

"Doctor Maxwell, afterwards Bishop of Kilmore,
deposeth that Mrs. Catharine Hovendon, widow, and
mother to Sir Phelim O'Nial, preserved four and
twenty English and Scotch in her own house, and fed
them there for seven and thirty weeks, out of her own
store ; and that, when her children took her aAvay,
upon the approach of our army, she left both them,
and the deponent at liberty. That Captain Alexander
Hovendon, her son, conducted five and thirty English
out of Armagh to Drogheda, whereof some were of
good qviality ; when it was thought he had secret
directions to murder them. Twenty more he sent
safe to ISTewry, and he would trust no other convoy
but himself." — Carte; and Ap. to Borl. Hist. Irish Reh.

Again, it must not be forgotten, that all this charity
and humanity was exhibited and practised by the
Catholics during the atrocious cruelties of the Pro-
testant party, of which I have recorded instances in
the foregoing pages.

There is a very important passage on this subject
in Warner, relative to the conduct of the Catholic
gentlemen of Munster. This is Warner's language : —

"There are many honourable testimonies of the
care and preservation of the English by Lord Mus-
kerry and his lady ; not only in saving their lives
from the enemy, but also in relieving them, in great

CHAP. 111.] PROOFS, ETC. 22j

numbers, fioin cold and hunger, after they had been
stript and driven from their habitations. Indeed, all
the gentlemen in that part of the kingdom" [viz.
Munster] " were exceedingly careful to prevent blood-
shed, and to hinder the Enghsh from being pillaged
and stript, although it was many times impossible." —
Warner's Hist. Irish Reh.

Yet, this Lord Muskerry was afterwards barbarously
executed by the Cromwellians. It is said that his
lady shared his fate.

Another instance, in which the illustrious head of
the house of Mountgarret — the ancestor of the present
Earl of Kilkenny, figures in the character in which
one would naturally expect to find a member of his
illustrious family. A gallant soldier in battle-
humanity personified towards the unarmed foe : —

"In the above-mentioned province of Munster,"
says Carte, "Lord Mountgarret, by proclamation,
strictly enjoined all his followers not to hurt any of
the English inhabitants either in body or goods ; and
he succeeded so far in his design for their preservation,
that there was not the least act of bloodshed com-
mitted. But it was not possible for him to prevent
the vulgar sort, who flocked after him for booty, from
plundering both English and Irish, Papist and Pro-
testant, without distinction. He used his authority,
but in vain, to put a stop to this violence : till seeing
one of the rank of a gentleman, Mr. llichard Cantwell,
(descended from Mr. Cantwell of Painstown, a man
much esteemed in his country), transgressing his
orders, and plundering in his presence, he shot him
dead with his pistol.'' — Cartes Orniond.

Now for a few insta^nces of the manner in which the
Irish, when successful, treated their enemies when in
their power. Here i^ a remarkable instance : —

" ' I took,' says Lord Castlehaven, ' Athy by storm,
with aU the garrison (700 men) prisoners. I made a
present of them to Cromwell, desiring him by letter
that he would do the like with me, as any of mine
should fall into his power. But he little valued my

p

226 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. III.

civility. For in a few days after lie besieged Gowran,
and the soldiers mutinying, and giving up the place
with tfieir officers, he caused the governor, Hammond,
and some other officers, to be put to death.' " — Castle-
haven, 107.

There is another instance which is still more grati-
fying ; as it shows how even the private soldiers of
the Catholic party rivalled their officers in their ab-
horrence of, and forbearance from, cruelty : —

" The next day Rathfarnham was taken by storm,
and all that were in it made prisoners ; and though
500 soldiers entered the castle before any officer of
note, yet not one creature was killed ; which I tell
you by the way, to observe the dijfference between
our and the [Cromwellian] rebels making use of a
victory." — Lord OrmoncVs Letters, ii. 408.

Thus it appears that even the Irish soldiery ceased
to shed blood, from the moment when resistance was
at an end. I could easily multiply instances ; but the
few I select are so emphatic, that more are unneces-
sary. I cannot however avoid giving this. It is
another proud honour to the House of Mountgarret : —

"At the same time the said Lord Mountgarret's
eldest son. Colonel Edmund Butler, taking posses-
sion of Waterford, none of the inhabitants, of what-
ever country or religion, was either kiUed or pillaged ;
and such of the British Protestants as had a mind to
leave the place, were allowed to carry off their goods
wherever they pleased." — Carte's Ormond.

Contrast, now, the manner in which the Irish Ca-
tholics performed the conditions of surrender, with
the mode wherein the Protestant party behaved on
similar occasions. This is the Catholic instance : —

"When Birr surrendered to General Preston, in
January, 1642, the articles were faithfully performed;
and the Earl of Castlehaven, his Lieutenant General,
conveyed the garrison and inhabitants, to the number
of 800 persons, in a long march of two or three days
together through the Avoods of Irregan and waste
countries, safe to Athy." — Carte's Ormond vol. i.

CHAP. III.] PROOFS. ETC. 227

There are many more instances of this kind —
highly honourable to the Irish party. 1 select the
following : —

" The towns of Clonmel and Carrickmagriffit, in
Tipperary, and Dungarvan, were severally surprised
by Mr. Richard Butler, of Kilcash, second brother to
the Marquis of Ormond ; and he had such an influ-
ence over his followers that he kept them not only
from murder but even from plunder ; his great care
and noble disposition being acknowledged even by
his enemies." — Carte's Ormond.

Here is another : —

" Callan and Gowran were seized at the same time
by persons thereunto designed by Lord Mountgarret,
without any bloodshed : some plunder, however,
was there committed, though with less violence for
fear of complaints, it being well confined to cattle of
English breed which were stolen as well from the
Irish who had any of that breed, as from the English."
Carte's Ormond.

I give another instance more in detail : —

" James, Jjord Dunboyne hearing of the surprise of
Fethard by Theobald Butler, and being chief com-
mander of the barony of Myddlethyrde, by special
grants made to some of his ancestors for service per-
formed to the Crown of England, repaired thither the
next day, and took on him the command of the town,
dispersing the rabble, and placing in it a garrison
which he formed of the most substantial inhabitants
of the place and neighbourhood. He immediately
set the English at liberty, restored them their goods,
and sent them away in safety to Youghall, and other
places, which they chose for their retreat. Two of
these were clergymen, of whom Mr. Hamilton was, at
his request, sent with his family to the Countess
of Ormond." — Carte's Ormond.

Let the reader now compare the extracts I have
given descriptive of English Protestant cruelty, with
the chivalrous generosity of the Irish leaders and
troops ; the English cruelties not being palliated or

:3 OBSERVATIONS. [ K.\

relieved from their horror by any acts of generosity
or any traits of humanity. But extermination was
t'lc object, and unmitig?«ted murder and slaughter
I he means.

I think I cannot more appropriately close this part
of my illustrations of Irish history, than by quoting
fi om Bishop Burnet the following description of the
treatment given by the Irish to the Eight Rev. Dr.
Bedell, Protestant bishop of Kilmore; a most humane
and worthy man. He was in the hands of the Irish
during the worst part of the insurrection. The Irish
not only did him no harm ; but they took care of all
those persons — (being Protestants of course) — who
came to him for protection. In short they treated
him with kindness, and protected him whilst he lived ;
and honoured him at his death. This affecting ac-
count is taken from Burnet's Life of Bedell ;—

" Doctor Bedell, bishop of Kilmore, when a pri-
soner with the insurgents, who doubtless had
many priests among them, was never interrupted
in the exercise of his worship, although not only his
house and all the out-buildings, but also the church
and church-yard, were full of people that flocked to
him for protection. So that, from the 23rd of Octo-
ber, to the 18th of December following, he, and all
those within his walls, enjoyed, to a miracle,''^ says
bishop Burnet, " perfect quiet. And when he died at
the age of 71, the titular bishop of that diocese, though
he had proselyted his brother, a popish priest, to the
communion of the established church, suffered him
to be buried in consecrated ground, the Irish doing
him unusual honours at his funeral. For the chiefs
of the insurgents having assembled their forces accom-
panied his body to the church-yard with great solem-
nity ; and desired Mr. Clogy, one of his chaplains, to
bury him according to the church offices. At his in-
terment they discharged a volley of shot, crying out in
Latin. ' Hie requiescat idtimus Anglorum ! ' May the
last of the English rest in peace ! Edmund Farrilly,
a popish priest, exclaimed at the same time, ' 0, Sit

CHAP. III.] PEOOFS, ETC. 220

aniyna mea cum Bedello P Would to God that my
soul were with Bedell !'' — Bishor) Burners Life of
Bedell.

I have now concluded the quotations which con-
trast the brutal ferocity of the English Protes-
tant party, with the humanity and generosity of the
Irish Catholics during the civil war. And I shall
next proceed to a few further illustrations of the
conduct of the adverse party during that disastrous
period.

CHAPTER III.— PART V.

It is, I repeat it, singularly curious, that whilst the
English party had the strongest inducements to ca-
lumniate the Irish Catholics, they yet should have
preserved so many traits of humanity and mercy on
the part of the Irish ; while at the same time they
have not attempted to state a single act of kindness,
charity, humanity, or mercy amongst the leaders ot
the English Protestant party. Extermination of the
Irish was their object. Accordingly, extermination
was their practice. I cannot, after the most minute
search, discover one single instance in which life was
spared to combatant or non-combatant, being Irish ;
to Irish man, Irish woman, or Irish child, I do not
believe there are any such instances ; I hope there are
such ; because if there be, the publication of this work
will assuredly induce somebody to hunt them out and
bring them forward. It would be desirable to mitigate
the horror arising from the atrocity of the blood-thirsty
Protestant party of that day. It could be wished, for
the sake of humanity, that the cruelties of the English
should have some mitigation arising from at least one
solitary act of virtue.

Let it not be supposed that I am ignorant that even
Cromwell occasionally observed the faith of treaties ;
or that he sometimes carried into effect that quarter for
which men in arms had stipulated before surrender. It
was his best policy on some occasions to do so ; and

230 OBSEEVATIONS. [CHAP. HI.

not to drive to utter despair all the armed Irish. But
even these acts of justice were extremely rare. And
some of them were liable to be impeached for base un-
faithfulness. His first perfidious slaughter at Drogheda,
leaves any person attempting to become his advocate,
by reason of his occasional performance of stipulation,
in a situation not the most enviable. The truth is,
that a fiend so black with crime, so stained with blood,
never yet exhibited in any country to compare with
Cromwell and his gang of sanguinary biblical enthu-
siasts in Ireland.

The deep interest which the English party had in
calumniating the Irish is manifest. The atrocious
iniquity of falsely charging the Irish with crime,
was calculated to give these advantages to the
English : —

Firstly — These false charges would serve to miti-
gate the horrors, otherwise unpalliated, of the mas-
sacres committed by the English Protestant party.
It would place these massacres in the light of a re-
taliation upon the Irish for their crimes. Although,
in sad truth, retaliation by means of the slaughter
of unoffending men, women, and children, would be
a poor plea for such barbarous inhumanity. But
yet it would be some, and it could be the only
mitigation.

Secondly — It would serve— as it did serve — as an
ex cuse for seizing all the estates of the Irish, and de-
claring them forfeited to the Cromwellian party.

Thirdly — it would serve — and it did serve — to en-
able the ungrateful Stuart family to leave in the
hands of the Cromwellian soldiers, or to convert to
their own use, the estates of the faithful Irish Catho-
lics, who had fought, and bled, and suffered in the
cause of Charles the First, and whose properties were
left as a plunder to those enemies of that monarch
who brought him to the scaffold ; a plunder partici-
pated in to the extent of eighty thousand acres by the
Duke of York, afterwards the miserable and contemp-
tible James the Second.

CHAP. III. PROOFS, ETC. 231

With siicli powerful motives to calumniate and to
persevere in calumny, it mil not be surprising to find,
that all enquiry into the real facts was refused ;
either contemptuously or upon the most futile pre-
tences. The Irish repeatedly pressed for the fullest
inquiry. And when the King's necessities compelled
him to offer them an amnesty ; the Irish actually re-
fused to accept any amnesty for any person of their
party who should be proved guilty of murder, breach
of quarter, or any inhuman cruelty. The following
is the 19th proposition addressed to the King,
with a remonstrance on their grievances, by the
confederate Catholics who assembled at Trim in
1642 :—

" 19thly. Forasmuch as your majesty's said Catho-
lic subjects have been taxed with many inhuman
cruelties wJiich they never committed, your majesty's
said suppliants, therefore, for their vindication, and to
manifest to all the world their desire to have all such
offenders brouglit to justice, do desire that in the
next parli.iment, all notorious murthers, breaches of
quarter and inhuman cruelties committed of either
side, may be questioned in the said parliament, if your
majesty think fit ; and such as shall appear to be
guilty to be excepted out of the act of obhvion, and
punished according to their deserts." — Borlase^ p.
191.

The reader will not be surprised to hear that this
proposition was rejected at the instance of the English
Protestant party. This single fact of rejection will
be conclusive in the mind of every reasonable man as
to the guilt or innocence of the parties respectively.

There was a peace made in 1643 — termed "The
Cessation " — between the confederated Catholics and
the King's friends in Ireland, with the Marquis of
Ormond at their head : and again a regular peace in
1648. Upon both these occasions the Irish Catholics
refused to accept an indemnity for persons convicted
of murder, breach of quarter, or inhuman cruelty.
On the contrary, their leaders were desirous that every

232 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. III.

person who had slied human blood out of battle,
should be condignly punished.

" In the two peaces concluded " [by the Irish Ca-
tholics] " with the Marquis of Ormond, viz. those
of 1643 and 1648, they expressly excepted from pardon
all those of their party that had committed such
cruelties. And long before either of these peaces,
Lord Clanricard testified, ' it was the desire of the
whole nation that the actors of these cruelties should,
in the highest degree, be made examples to all pos-
terity.'— Carte's Ormond, vol. iii. " And the Marquis-
of Ormond himself confessed, ' that those, assuming
power among the Irish, had long disclaimed them,
and professed an earnest desire that they might be
brought to punishment.' " — Ibid.

In short, the Irish Ciitholics acted precisely as in-
nocent men would act : not seeking to screen any of
the idle or dissolute of their own party, who in the
wild license of civil war might have slain any Protes-
tant out of battle, or committed any other murder.
On the contrary, the Irish Cathohcs sought anxiously
to have all such offenders punished without mercy.
The following extract from the Kev. Peter Walsh,
tends forth to elucidate these transactions ; and he is
confessed, by the Protestant writers of his own and
all subsequent periods, to be a faith-worthy witness :

"Not to dwell longer," says Mr. Walsh, "on par-
ticulars, the whole body of the Catholic nobility and
gantry of Ireland did, by their agents at Oxford in
1643, petition his Majesty : —

" ' That all the murders committed on both sides,
in this war, might be examined in a future parlia-
ment, and the actors of them exempted out of all the
acts of indemnity and oblivion. But this proposal
the Protestant agents, then also attending the King
at Oxford, wisely declined ; upon which it was justly
observed that if it should be asked wherefore this offer
of the accused Irish has been always rejected or
evaded by their accusers (for it was more than once
repeated afterwards,) there is no man of reason but

CHAP. III.] PROOFS, ETC. 233

understands it was, because the Irish were not guilty
of those barbarous and inhuman crimes wdth which
they were charged ; and because those who charged
them so exorbitantly, found themselves, or those of
their pa^ty, truly chargeable with more numerous
crimes and murders, committed on the stage of Ire-
land, whereon they had acted, and yet but partly,
their own proper guilt ; for many of them had acted
it on that of Great Britain too, even the most horrid
guilt imaginable, by the bloody and most execrable
murder of the best and most innocent of Kings.' "—
Feter Walsh's Reply to a Person of Quality.

All the official acts of the confederated Catholics
were consistent with this pure and honourable prin-
ciple ; the principle of inquiry into the crimes actually
committed at all sides ; the principle of exonerating
the innocent and punishing the guilty. And this
principle of justice was repudiated and rejected by the
Protestant party !

In every part of these transactions, there is some-
thing singular and striking. The confederated Catho-
lics were in possession of power from the year 1643
to the year 1649. They w^ere in possession of, and
had the management of, nearly all Ireland, with the
exception of Dublin and a few other places. In 1644
they were at the acme of their power. Their General
Assembly met at Kilkenny, enacted laws, and carried
on the government. This assembly was composed
almost exclusively of Catholics ; the Executive were
exclusively so. Yet they never were once accused of
having made a single intolerant law ; or a single into-
lerant or bigoted regulation or ordinance ! Tliey did
not persecute one single Protestant ; nor are they ac-
cused of any such persecution. This indeed is
matter of which the Catholics of Ireland may be
justly proud.

I have already shown from extracts taken from
Protestant writers, the admission that the confede-
rated Catholics never persecuted a single Protestant.

Now if the reader will go back to jiage 187, lie will

234 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. III.

find the sanguinary orders issued against the Irish
by the English parliament ; the utter refusal to give
the Irish quarter. And especially in page 181, he will
find the extermination orders given in Dublin by the
Lords Justices, bearing date the 23rd of February,
1641 ; in which, by-the-bye, there is a perfect gloating
over every w^ord descriptive of sanguinary cruelty ;
and above all, the direction to destroy all towns
wherein the rebels had been relieved or harboured,
and " to kill and destroy all the men there inhabiting
capable to bear arms," aye, although thoroughly inno-
cent in thought, word, or deed, of any crime !

The contrast afforded to this ineffable barbarity by
the conduct of the Catholic power is painfully pleas-
ing. In May, 1642, the Catholic body — clerical and
lay — met in national Synod at Kilkenny. They
wielded not only temporal authority, but also the
spiritual thunders of the Catholic church, against
all those who, during the war, should commit any
cruelty. I take the following description of this
Catholic body, from a Protestant historian. Doctor
Warner : —

" This was," says Dr. Warner, " a general Synod
of all the popish bishops and clergy of Ireland. Three
of the titular archbishops, six other bishops, the
proxies of five more, besides vicars-general and
other dignit£g:ies, were present at this Synod. And
as these are the acts and ordinances purely of
the Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland, represented in
a general Synod, I suppose it would be allowed on all
sides that whatever proceedings are here condemned,
are to be placed to the account of the folhes and vices
of particular people ; and cannot fairly be charged on
the Roman faith." — TFar/ier's Hist. Irish Rebellion^
p. 201.

I will now give three of the articles unanimously
agreed on at this Synod :

"Articles agreed upon, ordained, and concluded in
the General (Catholic) Congregation held at Kilkenny,
May, 1642.

CHAP. III.] PROOFS, ETC. 235

" We declare the [present] war, openly Catholic,
to be lawful and just ; in which war, if some of the
Catholics be found to proceed out of some particular
and unjust title, covetousness, cruelty, revenge, or
hatred, or any such unlawful private intentions, we
declare them therein grievously to sin, and therefore
worthy to be punished and restrained with ecclesias-
tical censures (if advised thereof) they do not amend."
— Busliivorth, V. 51G.

" We will and declare all those that murder, dis-
member, or grievously strike ; all thieves, unlawful
spoilers, robbers of any goodsj extorters ; together
with all such as favour, receive or any ways assist
them, to be excommunicated ; and so to remain until
they completely amend and satisfy, no less than if
they were namely proclaimed excomnmnicated.

" We command all and every the generals, colonels,
captains, and other officers of our Catholic army,
to whom it appertaineth, that they severely punisli
all transgressors of our aforesaid command, touch-
ing murderers, maimers, strikers, thieves, and rob-
bers ; and if they fail therein, we command the
parish priests, curates, or chaplains, respectively, to
declare them interdicted ; and that they shall be ex-
communicated if they cause not due satisfaction to be
made unto the commonwealth and the party offended.
And this the parish priests or chaplains shall observe,
under pain of excommunication on sentence given
ipso facto !^ — Borlase^ p. 122 ; and llasltworth, v. 520.

Thus, the public acts of the confederated Catholics,
contrast as favourably with the public acts of the
Protestant party, as the generosity and humanity of
the Catholic Irisli, armed and unarmed, contrast with
the atrocities of the Protestant English.

CHAPTER III.— PART VI.

From the quotations which I have made from various
historians, he who has taken the trouble to follow me

236 OBSERVATIONS, CHAP. III.

must liave perceived how completely the Cromwellian
power had oeen established, throuo-h oceans of blood,
and through scenes of fiendish and appalling cruelt)^
I shall now proceed to show how the survivors of the
Irish were disposed of.

" The affairs of the confederate Catholics being now
absolutely irretrievable, the Mar(.|uis of Clanricard in
1652 left Ireland, carrying with him the royal au-
thority— {Borlase, Irish lieb.) ' And within atw^elve-
month after, Mortogh O'Brien, the last of the Irish
commanders, submitted to the parliament on the usual
terms of transportation ; by the favour of which,'
(adds Borlase), ' twenty-seven thousand men had been
that year sent away.' ' Cromwell,' says a late his-
torian, ' in order to get free of his enemies, did not
scruple to transport forty thousand Irish from their
own country, to fill all the armies in Europe with
complaints of his cruelty, and admiration of their own
valour.' — Dairym'ple, Mem. of Great Brit. vol. i part
2, p. ^Ql.Y—Curriys Hevicw, p. 386.

I have given proofs enough to show that the design
of the English Protestant party was totally to exter-
minate the Irish people. For the purpose of effectually
clearing the country of the native Irish, it was, of
course, expedient to get rid of as many persons of the
military age as possible. It was in this way that the
27,000 persons mentioned in the last extract were
disposed of. Several olher detachments, comprising
from one to four thousand men each, under the com-
mand of Irish officers, were disposed of by Cromwell
and his government to foreign princes.

But the enormities of the ruling tyrants did not
stop here. Those of militar}^ age wlio w^ere spared
from the slaughter, to the amount, by a safe calcu-
lation, of more than forty thousand, were sent into
foreign service on the continent of Europe, especially
to Spain and Belgium. The following note will be
found in Lingard : —

"According to Petty (p. 187), six thousand boys
and women were sent away. Lynch (Cambrensis

CKAP. III.] PROOFS, ETC. 237

B versus^ in fine) says, that they were sold for slaves,
Broudin, in his Py'ojmgRaculum {Pragix, anno 1669),
numbers the exiles at 100,000 : Ultra centum millia
omnis sexus et £etatis, e quibus aliquot milUa in di-
versas Americse tabbacarias insulas relegata sunt ; p.
692. In a letter in my possession, written in 1656, it
is said : Catholicos pauperes plenis navibus mittunt
in Barbados et insulas Americie. Credo jam sexa-
ginta millia abivisse. Expulsis enim ab initio in
Hispaniam et Belgium maritis, jam uxores et proles
in Americam destinantur." — Lingards England^ vol.
X. p. 306.

Thus we see from Broudin, that there were more
than 100,000 persons of every age and sex banished ;
of whom several thousands were, as he says, sent to
the West India Islands. We also learn from the
original letter in the possession of Dr. Lingard, that
the vessels were crowded with the poorer classes of
Catholics, and sent to Barbadoes and the other West
India Islands. " I believe," says the writer, " that
already sixty thousand are gone ; for the husbands
being first sent to Spain and Belgium, already their
wives and children are destined for the Americas."
It would be, indeed, idle to exclaim at any cruelty
committed at that time. Those unhappy exiles per-
ished in hundreds and thousands. Of the myriads
thus transported, not a single one survived at the end
of twenty years.

Was there any species of crime which was not per-
petrated against the Irish by the barbarians of the
English Governments ]

In Thurlow's correspondence, the formation of
press-gangs to collect the male and female youth for
transportation, is stated at length. Some have thought
that the system adopted by the monster who now rules
in Russia, of collecting young women from his Polish
subjects to send to his military colonies, was an in-
vention of his own. But there is no atrocity so great
as not to have its prototype in the brutalities inflicted
upon the people of Ireland by some of their English

238 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. III.

rulers. It is melanclioly to read such a statement as
the following :

" After the conquest of Jamaica, in 1655, the Pro-
tector, that he might people it, proposed to transport
a thousand Irish boys and a thousand Irish girls to
the island. At first, the young women only were
demanded, to which it is replied : ' Although we
must use force in taking them up, yet, it being so
much for their own good, and likely to be of so great
advantage to the public, it is not in the least doubted
that you may have such a number of them as you
shall think fit.' — Thuidoe, iv. 23. In the next letter,
H. Cromwell says : ' I think it might be of like ad-
vantage to your affairs there, and ours here, if you
should think fit to send one thousand five hundred or
two thousand young boys of twelve or fourteen years
of age to the place aforementioned. We could well
spare them, and they would be of use to you : and
v/ho knows but it might be a means to make them
Englishmen, I mean rather Christians'?' (p. 40.)
Thurloe answers : 'The com.mittee of the council
have voted one thousand girls, and as many youths,
to be taken up for that purpose.' (p. 75.)"

Sacred heaven ! Thus it is that the English "^did
good" to the people of Ireland ! The young women
were to be taken by force from their mothers, their
sisters, their homes, and to be transported to a foreign
and unhealthy clime. "O but" said the EngKsh
rulers, " it is all for their own good !" Then, again,
look at the cold-blooded manner in w^hich Henry
Cromwell proposes to make " Englishmen and Chris-
tians."

"Englishmen and Christians !" . . .

But no. Comment is useless.

All these things appear like a hideous dream.
They would be utterly incredible, only that they are
quite certain.

There remained, however, too many to render pos-
sible the horrible cruelty of cutting all their throats.
The Irish Government, constituted as it was of the

CHAP. III.j PROOFS, ETC. 239

superior officers of the regicide force, resorted to a
different plan. Here is the account given by Lord
Clarendon of their conduct : —

"They found the utter extirpation of the nation
(which they had intended; to be in itself very difficult,
and to carry in it somewhat of horror, that made some
impression upon the stone-hardness of their own
hearts. After so many thousands destroyed by the
plague which raged over the kingdom, by fire, sword,
and famine, and after so many thousands transported
into foreign parts, there remained still such a nume-
rous people that they knew not how to dispose of :
and though they were declared to be all forfeited, ancl
so to have no title to anything, yet they must remain
somewhere. They therefore found this expedient,
which they called an act of grace : there was a large
tract of land, even to the half of the province of
Connaught, that was separated from the rest by a long
and large river, and which, by the plague and many
massacres, remained almost desolate. Into this space
they required all the Irish to retire by such a day,
under the penalty of death ; and all who should, after
that time, be found in any other part of the kingdom,
man, woman, or child, should be killed by anybocly
who saw or met them. The land within this circuit,
the most barren in the kingdom, was, out of the
grace and mercy of the conquerors, assigned to those
of the nation as were enclosed, in such proportions as
might, with great industry, preserve their lives." —
Clarendon's Life, vol. ii. p. 116.

It would seem as if the English rulers of Ireland
had determined that there should be no species of in-
justice omitted in the catalogue of their crimes to-
wards Ireland. For, certainly, a greater cruelty
than this "transplanting" (as it was technically
called) could not be committed upon human beings
who were allowed to liv<^ This cruelty was refined.
For the tyrants took cafts to provide against the con-
tingent chance of the restoration of the royal autho-
rity. They had the baseness to compel the unhappy

240 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. III.

Irish gentry to execute releases of tlieir former pro-
perty ; releases which were used for the worst of
purposes by the profligate monarch who regained the
throne, and by his more profligate advisers.

Clarendon continues the account of the trans-
plantation thus : —

"And to those persons from whom they_ had
taken great quantities of land in other provinces,
they assigned the greater proportions within this pre-
cinct ; so that it fell to some men's lot, especially when
they were accomodated with houses, to have a com-
petent livelihood, though never to the fifth part of
what had been taken from them in a much better
province. And that they might not be exalted with
this merciful donative, it was a condition that accom-
panied this their acommodation, that they should all
give releases of their former rights and titles to the
land that was taken from them, in consideration of
what was now assigned to them ; and so they should
for ever bar themselves and their heirs from ever
laying claim to their old inheritance. What should
they do 1 They could not be permitted to go out of
this precinct to shift for themselves elsewhere ; and
without this assignation, they must starve there, as
many did die every day of famine. In this deplor-
able condition, and under this consternation, they
found themselves obliged to accept or submit to the
hardest conditions of tlieir conquerors ; and so signed
such conveyances and releases as were prepared for
them, that they might enjoy those lands which
belonged to other men." — Clarendon's Life, ii. 116,
117.

The English usurpers now declared that Ireland
was pacified. It was literally in the words of
Tacitus, —

•' Ubi solitiidiiiem faciunt, pacera appellant." '

They had made a Rolitude ; but it was not of a
sterile waste ; it was of a fertile and beautiful land.

CIIAP. III.] PROOFS, ETC. 241

They were glad to inhabit it, these oflacers and sol-
diers ! They brought over as many of their com-
panions, reLitions, and friends, as they could.

I will now insert a sketch of the manner in
wliich the Cromwellians divided Ireland among

■j-ligiYigglY-pg •

" On the '26th of September 1653, the English par-
liament declared, that the rebels in Ireland were sub-
dued, and the rebellion ended ; and thereupon pro-
ceeded to the distribution of their lands, in pursuance
of the Act of Subscriptions, 17 Caroli. 'This being
notified to the Government of Ireland, Lord Broghill,
afterwards Earl of Orrery, proposed at a council of
war of all the chief commanders for the parliament,
that the whole kingdom should be surveyed, and the
number of acres taken, with the quality of them ; and
then that all the soldiers should bring in their demands
of arrears ; and so, give every man by lot, as many
acres as should answer the value of his demand.' " —
Mortices Life of Orrery.

We shall now see what was done upon this pro-
l^osal : —

"This proposal was agreed to, and all Ireland
being surveyed, the best land was rated at only
four shillings an acre, and some only at a penny." —
(Morr ice's Life of Orrery, vol. ii., p. 117.) " The
soldiers drew lots in what parts of the kingdom
their portions should be assigned to them." — (Carte's
Ormond, ii. 301.) Great abuse was committed in
setting out the adventurer's satisfaction for the money
they had advanced at the beginning of the war ; for
they had whole baronies set out to them in gross ; and
then they employed surveyors of their own, to make
their admeasurements." — lb.

I may here remark that the general survey which
was made in pursuance of Lord Broghill's proposal, is
the same which is known by the name of "the Down
Survey ;" in the making of which, Sir W. Petty, the
paternal ancestor of the present Marquis of Lans-
down, had a very principle part.

242 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. III.

Amidst this rapine, it may excite a faint smile to
see the choice that Cromwell made for himself ; al-
though his premature death prevented the realization
of his plan : —

"A good and great part (as I remember the whole
province of Tipperary) Cromwell had reserved to him-
self, as a demesne (as he called it) for the state, and
in which no adventurer or soldier should demand his
lot to be assigned ; and no doubt intended both the
state and it for making great his own family. ^ It can-
not be imagined in how easy a method, and with what
peaceable formality, this whole great kingdom was
taken from the just lords and proprietors, and divided
and given amongst those who had no other right to it
but that they had power to keep it." — Clarendon's Life^
vol. ii., p. 117.

It will be well to remember, when we come to
treat of the reign of King Charles ii., who they were
that got the greatest share of the lands of the Irish
royalists : —

"No men had so great shares as they who had
been instruments to murder the King. What
lands they were pleased to call unprofitable (which
were thrown in gratis) they returned as such, let
them be never so good and profitable." — Cartes
Ormond^ ii. 301.

" The lands held by the soldiers as unprofitable, and
as such returned into the surveyoi-'s office, amounted
to 605,670 acres. In this manner was the whole king-
dom divided between the soldiers and the adventurers
of money." — Curry's Revieiv, p. 388.

Thus was the slaughter and the robbery of the Irish
people complete.

But the iniquity was not complete. It could not
be so, without the intervention of what was termed
" Courts of Justice." I believe there is no instance
in English history of any villany being perpetrated
upon the people of England Scotland, and Ireland, in
which my lords the judges had not their fuU share of
the crime. Accordingly, Cromwell instituted his

CHAP. III.] PROOFS, ETC. 243

" Courts of Justice " in Ireland They were familiarly
called Cromwell's slaughter-houses.

""High Courts of Justice, in /r6Za??c?.— About this
time, a new tribunal, under the title of an high court of
justice, was erected by the usurpers in different parts
of both kingdoms, for the trial of rebels and malig-
nants \ that is to say, those who were still found faith-
ful to the King. That which sat at Dublin in 1652,
was besides authorised ' to hear and determine all
massacres and murders done and committed since the
first day of October, 1641 ; that is to say, the actors,
contrivers, promoters, abettors, aiders, and assisters of
any of the said massacres or murders, or killing after
quarter given.' For the iniquitous and bloody sen-
tences frequently pronounced in these courts, they
were commonly called ' Cromwell's slaughter-houses' ;
for no articles were pleadable in them ; and against a
charge of things said to be done twelve years before,
little or no defence could be made ; and that the cry
was made of blood, aggravated with expressions of so
much horror, and the no less daunting aspect of the
court, quite confounded the amazed prisoners, so that
they came like sheep to the slaughter.'^ — Cumjs Re-
view of the Civil Wars in Ireland, p. 392.

The Irish Catholic party, as we have seen, repeat-
edly requested a full investigation of all the murders
committed during the war. But they demanded that
it should be an inquiry into the crimes of all parties
—the Protestant as well as the Catholic. This in-
quiry the Irish pressed to obtain in 1642, in 1646,
and again in 1648. But at each of these times the re-
quest was eluded or denied by the English Protestant
party. And they acted wisely in so denying it, for
their own interests.

These repeated offers on the part of the Irish
Catholics, these repeated refusals on the part of the
English Protestants, can, of course, leave not a doubt
on the mind of any rational man at the present day,
of the innocence of the one, and of the deep guilt of
the other.

244 OBSERVATIONS. [CHAP. III.

Cromwell's courts, however, were quite unequivocal.
Their examination was avowedly and exclusively con-
fined to the crimes committed by the Irish party, and
did not extend to any crimes committed upon them.
Yet, such is the nature of a just cause, that even
those tribunals confirmed the general innocency of
the Irish party. Such was the indiscriminate and
glaring injustice of these courts, that in various parts
of Ireland they contrived to condemn about two
hundred persons as guilty of murder on forged, cor-
rupt, or even upon no evidence.

"Yet," says Leland, "in the northern province,
which had been the great scene of barbarity, not one
was brought to justice but Sir Phelim O'Nial." —
Leland, book iii. p. 394.

The remark which Leland makes upon there being
but one case in the northern province, would have
assumed quite a difi'erent shape if he had been fair or
candid. He should have said that when this active,
energetic, and ambulatory tribunal of blood could
find but one case in all Ulster, and when that one was
the case of Sir Phelim O'Neill : and as Ulster was
the province the most deeply and extensively charged
with inhumanity and murder, it followed inevitably
that the charges were most enormously exaggerated
even against the people of Ulster, as we have, in fact,
seen that they were. If there had been many murders
in the rest of Ireland, surely this sanguinary tribunal
would have found more victims than the number
mentioned — about two hundred. Let it be recollected
that*even against the two hundred persons who were
convicted judgment was given either on no evidence,
or on corrupt or forged evidence. To a thinking
mind, there is no quantity of written or verbal au-
thority that would so coerce a conviction of the inno-
cence of the Irish Catholic party, as the result of the
investigation of this sanguinary and energetic court.
That court was ambulatory, and sat in almost every
county in Ireland. They had to investigate the crimes
committed by the Irish during an insurrection ren-

CHAP. III.] PROOFS, ETC. 245

liered hideous by the crimes committed upon the Irish.
It was ta CO art in which no defence was listened to. —
Men who had surrendered on the faith of articles of
capitulation, and who had performed their own part
of the stipulation, were deprived of the benefit of
those articles. No faith was kept with the Irish —
no justice w^as done. And yet — oh ! astojiishing ! —
not more than two hundred victims could be found
afibrding a shadow of pretext for putting them to
death upon the allegation that they committed
crimes during the rebellion !

Yet the Irish were made to endure the infliction of
the most horrible calumnies sustained not only upon
false, but on the most incredible of all imaginable tes-
timony, for nearly a century, before they were allowed
so much as to assert or defend their own innocence.
Such was the course and manner of English justice
to Ireland.

I canno* proceed without giving one trait of the
unhappy Sir Phelim O'Neill. There is no man of the
Irish party so deeply stained with the crimes accom-
panying tire insurrection. He was, in short, the worst
of the Irish. Yet, at his trial, he was offered his life,
if he would, but charge the King with having author-
ized him to commence that insurrection. He utterly
refused to accuse the King falsely. Accordingly, he
was sentenced to execution. There is for this fact
the authority of Dr. Sheridan, Protestant Bishop of
Kilmore, who was present at the execution, and who
asserts —

" That Colonel Hewson coming towards the ladder,.
Sir Phelim made his public acknowledgments to him
in a grateful manner, for the civil treatment he had
met with during the whole course of his imprison-
ment, and only wished that his life had been taken
from him in a more honourable manner. To this
Colonel Hewson answered, that he might save his life
if he pleased, only by declaring at that moment to the
people, that his first taking arms was hf virtue of a
commission under the broad seal of King Charles the

2-iG OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. III.

First : but Sir Plielim replied that he would not save
his life by so base a lie, by doing so great an injury
to that Prince. 'Tis true, he siiid, that he might the
better persuade the peopte to come unto him, he took
off an old seal from an old deed, and clapt it to a
;3ommission that he had forged, and so persuaded the
people that what he did was by the King's authority,
but he never really had any commission from the
King. This, adds Mr. Carte, the bishop told me he
heard him say." — 21ac2^1i€rson^s Hist. Great Britain,
iii. 280 ; also, Leland, book vi. c. 2.

Thus, even amongst the vv'orst of the Irish, do we
find a redeeming or a mitigating quality, that will
enable them to compete ^^fii\l the very foremost of the
English party. And this I say without at all pallia-
ting Sir Phelim's crimes. All I say is, that if ne had
a thousand crimes — yet, bad as he was, he had one
virtue ; whereas his enemies had none at all !

I have already quoted crimes enough committed by
the English Protestant party, to satiate the most Sa-
tanic disposition for cruelty ; but not enough to
satiate the English party.

The Irish parliament being suppressed, the usurped
powers in Ireland legislated by proclamations. There
was no other form. But these proclamations were
perfectly efficacious, sustained as they were by the
power of the sword.

I will give the first specimen :

"In the same year (1652) the parliament commis-
sioners at Dublin published a proclamation, signed
Charles Fleetwood, Edmund Ludlow, and John
Jones ; wherein the act of the 27th of Elizabeth was
made of force in Ireland, and ordered to be most
strictly put in execution. By this act, ' every Eomish
priest, so found, was deemed guilty of Rebellion, and
sentenced to be hanged until he was half dead ; then
to have his head taken off, and his body cut in quar-
ters • his bowels to be drawn out and burned ; and
his head fixed upon a pole in some public place."—
Curry's Review, p. 392.

CHAP. III.] PROOFS, ETC. 247

The only excuse for enacting tins horrible and
barbarous law, was, that it was already in force in
England. But in England the Catholic priests were
comparatively few ; in Ireland they were many. Pro-
testant intolerance found this method of diminishing
their number in Ireland ; hanging them till they were
half dead, and then tearing out their bowels. In the
next proclamation these lawgivers exceeded even the
English brutality. Here is the specimen : —

" The punishment of those who entertained a priest,
was, by the same act, confiscation of their goods and
chattels, and the ignominious death of the gallows.
Tills edict was renewed the same year, with the ad-
ditional cruelty of making even the private exercise
of the Roman Catholic religion, a capital crime. And
again repeated in 1657, with the same penalty of
confiscation and death to all those who, knowing
where a priest was hid, did not make discovery to the
Government." — Cwn^j/s Review^ 392.

Nor were these mere idle threats. They were car-
ried into full execution. The Protestant party were
triumphant ; and no Catholic who fell within their
grasp was spared. Let others speak for me : —

" Of the strict execution of these barbarous edicts,
many shocking examples were daily seen among these
unhappy people, insomuch, that to use the words of
a contemporary writer and eye witness, 'Neither
the Israelites were more crueUy persecuted by Pharaoh,
nor the innocent infants by Herod, nor the Christians
by Nero or any other of the Pagan tyrants, than were
the Iloman Catholics of Ireland at that fatal junc-
ture of these savage commissioners."' — Morrison's
Threnodia^ p. 14.

There was an awful pleasantry also in the cruelty
of these sanguinary wretches : —

" The same price (five pounds sterling) was set by
tliese commissioners on the head of a Romish priest
as on that of a wolf ; the number of which latter was
then very considerable in Ireland • and although the
profession or character of a RomisJi priest could not,

248 OBSEHVATIONS, [CHAP. III.

one would think, be so clearly ascertained as the
species of a wolf, by the mere inspection of their
heads thus severed from their bodies, yet the bare
asseveration of the beheaders was, in both cases,
equally credited and rewarded by these commission-
ers."— Curri/s Review, pp. 393-4.

Here let me pause amidst these scenes of horror
and desolation. Here let me pause ; consoled and
soothed by the recollection of the glorious contrast of
the humanity and mercy exhibited by the Irish Catho-
lics, with the fiendish cruelty and barbarity perpe-
trated by the English Protestants. The documents
put forth by each party fully establish this contrast.
On the side of the Irish there can^t be quoted any
letter, any writing, any document, any general or par-
ticular order, edict, law, or command ; enjoining,
suggesting, or palliating murder or pillage — plunder
or crime. No — not one ! I repeat it, not one ! On
the contrary, every authentic document that has ever
been produced as emanating from the Irish Catholics,
suggests lenity, forgiveness, and mercy. And, as in
the case of the act of the general Confederacy in
1642, there are not only pains, just pains and penal-
ties denounced against all evil-doers, plunderers,
robbers, and murderers ; but punishment is denounced
in the strongest terms against every person, no matter
of what rank, who should connive at crime, or en-
deavour to extend impunity to criminals ! And
even going so far, that to the inflictions by the tribu-
nals of this world, there is superadded the more
av/ful judgment of excommunication. (See pp.
309-10.)

On the other hand, you can read the gloating satis-
faction with which the English Protestant Lords
Justices, the English parliament, English officers in
command, and English parliamentary commissioners
in possession of legislative and executive authority in
Ireland, not only commanded but enforced the perpe-
tration of the most brutal barbarities and diabolical
cruelties upon the Irish people, by their public and

CnAP. III.] PROOFS, ETC. 249

private documents, their proclamations, their orders
to the military, their ordinances, edicts, and laws.
AU, all steeped in blood, and saturated with horrors.

Contrast the two. Recollect that, vnth. a very-
small exception, the entire of Ireland was in the pos-
session of the confederated Catholics for nearly six
years ; that is, from about 1643 to 1649. Eecollect
that during that year (and for the two years preceding
it) the utmost atrocities were perpetrated upon the
Irish. Recollect all this — and join then with me
in blessing Providence who gave the Irish nation a
soul full of humanity, a disposition so replete with
mercy, that, excepting in the actual civil war itself,
the Irish shed no blood, committed no crime, perpe-
trated no barbarity, exhibited no intolerance, exer-
cised no persecution.

When, O when ! will justice be rendered to tliy
sons, O loved fatherland i When, O when ! will
mankind recognise the just title of the Irish to pre-
eminence in the most glorious virtues ^ to morality of
the purest order, domestic and public 1 Temperance
of the most extensi ve and practical utility 1 Tenacious
religious fidelity, beyond the example of aU, or any,
of the countries on the face of Christendom 1

CHAPTER III.— PART VII.

I shall close the disastrous period embraced in this
third chapter, by the insertion of some documents
illustrative of the practices of the times. The first is
taken from a note to LingarcVs History of England,
and shows the spirit that animated the popular party
in England. I desire to show that it was not only
the Protestant Government, but the Protestant
populations of England, that gloated over Catho-
lic blood : —

" I have not been able," says Lingard, " to ascer-
tain the number of Catholic clergymen w^ho w^ere exe-
cuted or baniehed for their religion under Charles I.,
and under the Commonwealth. But I possess an

250 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. III.

original document, authenticated by the signatures of
the parties concerned, which contains the names and
fate of such Catholic priests as were apprehended
and prosecuted in London between the end of 1640
and the summer of 1651, by four individuals who had
formed themselves into a kind of joint stock com-
pany for that laudable purpose, and who solicited
from the council some reward for their services. It
should, however, be remembered, that there were many
others engaged in the same pursuit, and conse-
(^uently many other victims besides those who are
here enumerated."

Lingard then proceeds to quote from his original
document as follows : —

" The names of such Jesuits and Romish priests as
have been apprehended and prosecuted by Captain
James Wadsworth, Francis Newton, Thomas Mayo,
and Robert De Luke, messengers, at our proper charge,
whereof some have been condemned, some executed,
and some reprieved since the beginning of the par-
liament, (3rd November, 1640.) the like having not
been done by any others since the Reformation of re-
ligion in this nation : —

" William Waller, als. Slaughter, als. Walker, exe-
cuted at Tyburne. Cuthbert Clapton, condemned, re-
prieved and pardoned. Bartholomew Row, executed
at Tyburne. Thomas Reynolds, executed at Tyburne.
Edward Morgan, executed at Tyburne. Thomas
Sanderson, als. Hammond, executed at Tyburne.
Henry Heath, als. Pall Magdalen, executed at Tyburne.
Francis Quashet, died in Newgate after judgment.
Ai»thur Bell, executed at Tyburne, Ralph Corbey,
executed at Tyburne. John Duchet, executed at Ty-
burne. John Hamond, als. Jackson, condemned,
reprieved by the King, and died in Newgate. Wal-
ter Coleman, condemned and died in Newgate. Ed-
mond Cannon, condemned and died in Newgate.
John WigQiore, alias Turner, condemned, and reprieved
by the King, and is in custodie in Newgate. Andrew
Ffryer, alias Heme, alias Ricbn^ond, condemned, and

CHAP. III.] PROOFS, ETC. 251

died in Newgate. Joliii Goodman, condemned, and
died in Newgate. Henry Morse, executed at Tyburne.
Thomas Worsley, alias Harvey, indicted and proved,
reiDrieved by the Spanish ambassador and others.
Charles Chanie (Cheny), als, Thompson indicted and
proved, and begged by the Spanish ambassador, and
since taken by command of the Council of State and
is now in Newgate. Andrew White, indicted, proved,
reprieved before judgment and banished. Richard
Copley, condemned and banished. Richard Worthing-
ton, found guiltic, and banished. Edmond Cole,
Peter Wright, and William Morgan, indicted, proved,
and sent beyond sea. Phillip Morgan, executed at
Tyburne. Edmund Ensher, als. Arrow, indicted,
condemned, reprieved by the parliament, and banished.
Thomas Budd, als. Peto, als. Gray, condemned, re-
prieved by the Lord Mayor of London and others,
justices, and since retaken by order of the Council of
State, and is now in Newgate. George Baker, als.
Macham, indicted, proved guiltie, and now in New-
gate. Peter Beale, als. Wright, executed at Tyburne.
George Gage, indicted by us and found guiltie, and
since is dead."

James WadswoPvTH. Francis Newton.
Thomas Mayo. Robekt De Luke.

" This catalogue," continues Lingard, " tells a fearful
but instructive tale ; inasmuch as it shows how wan-
tonly men can sport with the lives of their fellow-men,
if it suit the purpose of a great political party. The
patriots, to enlist in their favour the religious preju-
dices of the people, represented the King as the patron
of popery, because he sent the priests into banishment,
instead of delivering them to the knife of the exe-
cutioner. Hence, when they became lords of the
ascendant, they were bound to make proof of their
orthodoxy ; and almost every execution mentioned
above took place by their order in 1642 or 1643. After
that time they began to listen to the voice of humanity,
and adopted the very expedient which they had so

2')2 OBSERVATIONS, CHAP. III.

clamorously condemned. They banished, instead of
hanging and quartering." — Lingard^ voL x. p. 428.^

As a pendant to the foregoing, and to form a kind
of rehef to the wholesale slaughters, I insert an extract
of the translation of an exceedingly rare and curious
tract, and published the year after Cromwell's death.
The original is in Latin, and is entitled, " Morisoni
Threnodia Hiberno-Catholica, sive Planctus Univer-
salis totius Cleri et Regni Hiberni£e de transcendent!
Crudelitate Anglorum adversus Catholicos in Hiber-
nia," GEnipont, 1G59 :—

"yl catalogue of some of the chiefs and nohles slaugh-
tered by the Protestants. — Chap. vi. — I do not here
enumerate any persons slain in battle, although he
might have fallen in the cause of his religion, nor do I
give the tenth part of the persons of quality who were
murdered, but only the more illustrious, being chiefly
those who were received into allegiance by the Pro-
testants, after the amnesty had been mad^, and actually
entered on ; [a treachery] which barbarians and infi-
dels themselves would abhor and deem detestable.
1. Lord Hugh MacMahon, the chief of his illustrious
race, a brave and noble military leader, was, after
two years' imprisonment in London, half hanged, and,
ere life was extinct, quartered ; his head was then
placed on an iron spike on London bridge to feed the
ravenous fowls of tha air ; his four quarters were
placed over four of the gates of London. 2. Cornelius
Maguire, Lord Viscount Iniskillen, a most devout and
holy man, sole companion in captivity of the aforesaid
Hugh MacMahon, underwent the same butchery about
two months after the execution of MacMahon. 3. The
illustrious Felix O'Neill (captured by Protestant de-
vice) was half -hanged in Dublin, a.d/iC52, and, while
yet alive, was quartered. His head was stuck upon a
great spike at the western gate of Dubhn, and his
quarters were sent to be stuck on spikes in four dif-
ferent parts of the kingdom. 4. Henry O'Neill, son
of Eugene O'Neill, taken prisoner in battle, and, not •
withstanding pliehted faith, slaughtered, in Ulster,

CHAP. III.] PROOFS, ETC. 253

A. D. 1651. 5. Tliaddaeus O'Connor (Sligo), descended
from the royal race of the last and most powerful
monarchs of Ireland, a man of great goodness and in-
nocence, hung in the towft of Boyle, in Connaught,
A.D. 1652, after the general amnesty had been made.

6. Constantius O'Ruairk, taken prisoner in battle,
murdered in 1652, notwithstanding plighted faitL

7. Theobald De Burgo, Lord Viscount Mayo, after
truce had been made with all such persons in the
kingdom as were not actually in arms against the Pro-
testants, and a general amnesty promised, was shot in
Gal way in 1651. 8. Charles O'Dowd, of a most higli
and noble race, hanged A.D. 1651. 9. The illustrious
Donat O'Brien, descended of the royal race of the
O'Briens, a most generous man, and of surpassing
hospitality ; after the Protestants had plighted to him
their faith, and given him safe conduct in order that
]ie might become their tributary ; an attack being
made one day by the Protestants against the Catholics,
he (O'Brien) relying on his having been received into
their friendship., approached ; when a certain Protes-
tant knight shot him through the body. Unsatisfied
with this cruelty, when the venerable old man (then
aged about 64 years), had entered a hut, half dead,
that he might, in penitence, commend himself to God,
a soldier followed, set fire to the hut, and burned this
noble old man — in Thomond, a.d. 1651. 10. James
O'Brien, of illustrious lineage, maternal nepliew of
the aforesaid Donatus O'Brien, a youth of high hopes
and prospects, was murdered at Nenagh in the Or-
moncls. They cut his head off and sent it to his
uterine brother, Moriarty O'Brien, then their prisoner.
11. Bernard O'Brien, of the same noble family, a youth
of equally fair prospects, was hanged in 1651. 12.
Daniel O'Brien, first cousin of the said Bernard, was
hanged, and his head cut off at Nenagh, 1651. 13.
The illustrious Colonel John O'Kennedy, a man of
the utmost integrity, was slain by the swords of the
Protestants, after their faith had been pledged to him
in battle. His head was then cut off and fastened on

254 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. III.

n spike in the town of ISTenagli, a.d. 1651. 14. James
O'Kenedy, son of the aforesaid illustrious gentleman,
a youth of gTeat hopes, being deluded with a similar
pledge of good faith, was hanged in ISTenagh, a.d. 1651.
15. The illustrious Sir Patrick Purcell, Vice-General
of all Munster, noble hearted, and a most accomplished
warrior (renowned for his services in Germany against
Sweden and France, under Ferdinand III. of Augustan
memory), wiis hanged after the taking of Limerick,
his heacl cut off, and exposed on a stake over the
southern gate (called John's gate) of the city of
Limerick, a.d. 1651. 16. The illustrious and most
generous Sir Godfrey Barron, a sincere Catholic, of
the highest fidelity, and of singular eloquence, who
had been deiuited by the confederated Catholics of
Ireland as their envoy to his most Christian Majesty,
was also hanged at Limerick. 17. The noble Sir
Godfrey Galway, was likewise hanged at Limerick,
1651. 18. The noble Thomas Stritch, Mayor of Lim-
erick, and alderman, was, with the like cruelty,
hanged at the same time with the rest. His head was
then cut off and fastened to the city gate. 19. The
noble Dominicus Fanning, ex-Mayor of Limerick, and
alderman, a well-known man, and of the liighest in-
tegrity, who had been of great service to the confe-
derated Catholics, a.ncl had laudably conferred much
benefit on the kingdom as well as on the city, was
hanged at Limerick along with the rest, a.d. 1651.
His head was cut off and affixed to the gate. 20.
Daniel O'Higgins, medical doctor, a wise and pious
man, was hanged at the same time at Limerick, a.d.
1651. 21. The illustrious and Eight Eeverencl Terence
O'Brien, Bishop of llaphoe (of whom I have already
spoken), was hanged at the same time, and his head
cut off. He went gloriously to heaven, a.d. 1651.
22. The illustrious John O'Connor, Lord of Kerry and
Iracht, on account of his adhesion to the Catholic
party, and his efforts to draw to it not only his per-
sonal followers, but all with whom he had friendship,
was, after having been seized upon by stratagem by

CHAP. III.] PROOFS, ETC. 255

the Protestants, brouglit to Tralee in that county, and
there half hanged and then beheaded, a.d. 1652.
23. The illustrious Lord Edward Butler, son of Lord
Mountgarret, an innocent man, who had never taken
arms, was hanged at Dublin alter the truce had been
commenced, and amnesty promised throughout the
Avhole kingdom, a.d. 1652. 2-4. The illustrious and
Reverend Bernard Fitzpatrick, priest, and descended
from the illustrious lineage of the Barons of Ossory,
who, flying for refuge from the fury of the Protestants
to a cave, was pursued by them ; who there cut oif the
head of this most holy man (who was equally renowned
throughout the kingdom for his life, his doctrine, and
his lineage). They affixed his head to a spik^ over
the town gate to be meat for the fowls of the air, and
left his flesh to be devoured by the beasts of the field.

"Nor was the inhuman fury of the Protestants
satiated with this slaughter of men ; but they also
drew their swords against women. Thus —

" The noble Lady Roche, wife of Maurice, Viscount
of Fermoy and Roche, a chaste and holy matron,
whose mind was solely occupied with prayer and piety,
being falsely accused of murder by a certain ungrateful
English maid-servant (whom she had compassionately
taken when a desolate orphan, and supported and
educated), was hanged at Cork in 1654, although
stricken in years, and destined in the course of nature
soon to die.

" The noble Lady Bridget of the house of Darcj',
wife of Florence Fitzpatrick, one of the Barons of
Ossory, was hanged by the Protestants at Dublin in
1652, without the form of law or of justice.

" What shall I yet say '? _ Time would fail me to nar-
rate the martyrdom of chiefs, nobles, prelates, priests,
friars, citizens, and others of the Irish Catholics (whose
purple gore has stained the scaffolds almost Avithout
end) ; who ' by faith conquered kingdoms and wrought
justice.' Of whom some had trials in mockeries and
stripes, moreover also of chains and prisons. Other
were stoned, cut asunder, racked, or put to death wit

■?56 OBSERVATIONS, [CHAP. III.

the sword. {Heh. xi.) Others have wandered over
the world in hunger, thirst, cold, and nakedness ;
being in want, distressed, afflicted ; w-andering in
deserts, in mountains, and in dens and in caves of the
earth. And all these being approved by the testi-
mony of the faith, without doubt received the promise.
Amen."— (pp. 65—72.)

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